Decoding Notch signaling - The importance of cycling at the right pace
Novo Nordisk Foundation
University of Copenhagen
Hourly cycles of signaling from receptors called Notch are required to stimulate expansion of fetal pancreatic cells. Furthermore, this cycling is also coupled to the choice that early fetal cells must make in order to make the mature cell types in the pancreas. Here we propose a set of experiments designed to uncover the mechanisms that instruct fetal pancreas cells “to cycle at the right pace” and how this pace enables the cells to select between different destinations, i.e. the different mature cell types. We intend to ask questions such as: How is the pace set? Is it significant that the pace is much faster in the pancreas than in other tissues? Does cycling Notch induce other genes to cycle? How is the destination (the cell types) affected by the pace? We expect that our work will be beneficial to the possible stem cell-based generation of islet β-cells for transplantation, for studies of mature β-cell function and be applicable to studies of pancreatic cancer.
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