Page 35 - Rappaport Institute Magazine 2024

GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
32-33
Epithelial stem cell biology and therapy
Despite the remarkable progress in the field of stem cell research, fundamental features of stem cells are still enigmatic. Our team has established genetic live tracing of individual stem cells in their native environment in the murine cornea. This strategy allows capturing life histories and transcriptional signatures of individual cells, leaving stem cells much less space to ‘hide’. This system revealed the existence of two novel stem cell populations, and unexpected regeneration of the stem cell pool. Our goals are (i) to illuminate stem cell function and regulation by the niche and (ii) develop novel stem cell-based therapies.
Selected Publications
ˆ Corneal committed cells restore the stem cell pool and tissue boundary following injury. Nasser et al. Cell Reports, 2018
ˆ Discrete limbal epithelial stem cell populations mediate corneal homeostasis and wound healing. Altshuler et al. Cell Stem Cell. 2021
ˆ Spotlighting adult stem cells: advances, pitfalls, and challenges. Altshuler et al. Trends Cell Biol. 2022
Grants and Awards
ˆ 2018-2021 FETopen EU. Bio-printing by light-sheet lithography: Engineering complex tissues with high resolution at high speed (BRIGHTER EU consortium) ˆ 2019-2024 Israel Science Foundation, R. Multidisciplinary approaches for unraveling fundamental stem cell features. Shalom-Feuerstein
ˆ 2022-2024 Rappaport personal grant, Unravelling immune niche cell – stem cell interaction in the cornea model. R. Shalom-Feuerstein
ˆ 2022-2024 EIC EU. Better bio-printing by light-sheet lithography (B-BRIGHTER EU consortium)
shalomfe@technuon.ac.il
Ruby Shalom Feuerstein Lab
Ruby Shalom-Feuerstein, PhD Associate Professor of Stem Cell Biology
PhD, 2007 – Tel Aviv University, Israel
Live lineage tracing of the cornea transgenic cells reveals a remarkable regeneration of the stem cell pool. Live lineage tracing of GFP+ stem cells and their differentiated RFP+ progeny. On the left is unperturbed homeostasis, whereas surgical stem cell removal and its natural repair was imaged at the indicated day post stem cell depletion. The RFP+ differentiated cells healed the stem cell compartment by day 1 and completed the reprogramming into GFP+ stem cell-like cells by day 10.