Prof. Shosei Yoshida visists U of M

My old friend and colleague, Professor Shosei Yoshida visited our Institute and gave an excellent seminar presentation "Spermatogenic stem cell system and its regulation in the mouse testicular niche" at SCI on April 27 and 28. Shosei is currently a full Professor at Division of Germ Cell Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institute of Natural Sciences. Shosei and I used to work together for MyoD and myogenesis in National Institute of Neuroscience, Tokyo, Japan. MyoD is a basi helix-loop-helix (bHLH) type master transcriptional factor for myogenesis. Shosei believed that a bHLH transcription factor also plays an essential role for spermatogenesis. After PCR-based screeing, he successfully identified a bHLH protein Neurogenin 3 which is an earlist transcription factor for spermatogenic stem cell. In this seminar, he intrduced spermatogenic stem cell system and presented a lot of amazing time laps imaging of spermatogenic stem cells using Neurogenin 3-GFP transgenic mice. Shosei is a young rising star in the spermatogenesis field and his great work lead several publications including Science and Developmental Cell. We were very grateful to Shosei for this trip and the marverous presentation.

Vanessa awarded UROP

I would like to announce that Vanessa Wankhede has been awarded a 2009 fall the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) award in University of Minnesota. Vanessa is currently a sophomore student majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Her project title is "Characterization of Muscle Stem Cell Proliferation, Differentiation and Stemness after Treatment with DNA Methylation Inhibitor". She will investigate the role of DNA demethylation for differentiation and self-renewal of muscle stem cells. Her findings will be applied for future cell-based treatment for muscular dystrophy. This is a great start for her medical scientific career as a pre-med undergraduate student. Congratulations to Vanessa!

Ronnel and Chris present at the yearly Undergraduate Symposium

Ronneil Aviles and Christopher Tastad gave terrific presentations at the yearly Undergraduate Symposium supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) University of Minnesota on April 8th 2009. Roneill and Chris presented their projects "Functional Studies for MASH Gene Family in Muscle Stem Cell" and "GADD45gamma is a Novel Downstream Target Gene of MyoD and Negatively Regulates Survival and Self-Renewal of Muscle Stem Cells". They discussed a lot of feedback and new ideas. We are looking forward to getting Ronneil's and Chris's projects for publication to scientific journals.

Ronneil present at Stem Cell Institute Journal Club

Ronneil Aviles presented at the Stem Cell Institute Journal club on March 27th 2009. Ronneil is currently a senior student majoring in Microbiology. He chose a paper "Control of the Reversibility of Cellular Quiescence by the Transcriptional Repressor HES1" which was published in recent Science. This paper described that the gene encoding the basic helix-loop-helix protein HES1 is required for quiescence to be reversible, because HES1 prevented both premature senescence and inappropriate differentiation in quiescent fibroblasts. In myogenesis HES1 suppresses MyoD activity and maintains quiescent status of myoblasts. Therefore, quiescent muscle stem cells (satellite cells) may be regulated by MyoD inhibitors such as HES1.

Chris awarded Marzolf Award

I would like to announce that Christopher Tastad has been awarded a 2008-2009 Marzolf Award from the Marzolf Foundation which is supporting the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center in University of Minnesota. Chris is currently a sophomore student majoring in Biochemistry. His project title is "Analysis of GADD45 gene function during muscle stem cell differentiation". He will investigate the role of GADD45 in muscle stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. He has been working hard and already obtained some interesting results. His findings will be applied for future cell-based therapy for muscular dystrophy. This is a great start for his medical scientific career as a pre-med undergraduate student. Congratulations to Chris!

Is MyoD the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for myogenesis?

MyoD is a muscle-specific transcription factor that plays essential roles in muscle satellite cell differentiation and regeneration. We have demonstrated that myoblasts derived from MyoD-/- satellite cells engrafted with significantly higher efficacy compared to wild-type myoblasts after injection into regenerating muscle and infarcted heart. MyoD-/- myoblasts were revealed to possess remarkable resistance to apoptosis and increased survival during differentiation and after apoptotic inductions, compared to wild-type myoblasts. Therefore, these data suggest that MyoD is not only regulating myogenic determination and differentiation (Dr. Jekyll) but also regulating apoptotic cell death (Mr. Hyde) during muscle development. In addition, down-regulation of MyoD expression may be required for maintenance of self-renewing muscle stem cells. Furthermore, our data offer evidence for novel therapeutic stem cell transplantation for muscular dystrophy, in which suppression of MyoD in myogenic progenitor cells would be beneficial to the therapy by providing a selective advantage for expansion of the stem cells. This project was published in recent PNAS and introduced in Faculty of 1000.