Prof. Dr. Erez Raz
Molecular mechanisms controlling cell fate maintenance
Cell Biology / Molecular Biology
Development
Stem Cell Biology
The establishment and preservation of cell fates are essential for the normal development and maintenance of different cell types and tissues within the body. Conversely, abnormal cell differentiation is associated with pathological conditions including cell transformation and the development of cancer. The maintenance of a specific fate is particularly critical for cells that migrate within tissues that undergo differentiation themselves, as the migrating cells are exposed to a range of signals that direct cells to assume different fates. We are studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of cells to avoid differentiation into other cell types and maintain their differentiation path, employing the germ cells of zebrafish as an in vivo vertebrate model.
Germ cells are a unique population of migratory cells that are capable of generating an entirely new organism in the next generation. To retain this capacity, germ cells repress differentiation into other types of cells they interact with, by employing networks of regulation over RNA and protein expression and function. We have conducted large-scale screens for molecules that play a role in the network preserving the potential of the germ cells to differentiation into sperm and eggs and the aim of the proposed project is to define the precise function of such molecules in controlling cell fate decisions.
The project involves the use of sophisticated genetic techniques (generation of transgenic animals, CRISPR-mediated gene knockouts, optogenetics etc), transcriptomic, proteomics, bioinformatics and advanced live imaging modalities.
Vita
- 1993 - 1994: Ph.D. in Developmental Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
- 1994 - 1997: Postdoctoral studies, Harvard Medical School, USA
- 1998 - 2000: Group leader, Freiburg University, Germany
- 2001 - 2007: Group leader, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
- Since 2007: Director of the Institute for Cell Biology, ZMBE, University of Münster, Germany
- Since 2010: Elected EMBO member
- Since 2012: Member of the Max Planck Society
Selected references
Olguin-Olguin, A.*, Aalto, A.*, Maugis, B., Boquet-Pujadas, A., Hofmann, D., Ermlich, L., Betz, T., Gov, N.S., Reichman-Fried, M., Raz, E. (2021) Chemokine-biased robust self-organizing polarization of migrating cells in vivo Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 118 (7) e2018480118 * Equal contribution
Gross-Thebing, S*., Truszkowski, L*., Tenbrinck, D*+., Sánchez-Iranzo, H., Camelo, C., Westerich, K.J., Singh, A., Paul Maier, P., Prengel, J., Lange, P., Hüwel, J., Gaede, F., Sasse, R., Vos, E.B., Betz, T., Matis, M., Prevedel, R., Luschnig, S., Diz-Muñoz, A., Burger, M., Raz, E+. (2020)
Using migrating cells as probes to illuminate features in live embryonic tissues. * Equal contribution + co-corresponding authors
Science Advances (6) 49, eabc5546.
Grimaldi, C., Schumacher, I., Boquet-Pujadas, A., Tarbashevich, K., Vos, B.E., Bandemer, J., Schick, J., Aalto, A., Olivo-Marin, J.-C., Betz, T., Raz, E. (2020)
E-cadherin focuses protrusion formation at the front of migrating cells by impeding actin flow.
Nature Communications 11: 5397
Malhotra D, Shin J, Solnica-Krezel J and Raz E (2018) Spatio-temporal regulation of concurrent developmental processes by generic signaling downstream of chemokine receptors. eLife 7:e37888
Gross-Thebing T, Yigit S, Pfeiffer, Reichman-Fried M, Bandemer J, Ruckert C, Rathmer C, Goudarzi M, Stehling M, Tarbashevich K, Seggewiss J and Raz, E (2017) The vertebrate protein Dead end maintains primordial germ cell fate by inhibiting somatic differentiation. Developmental cell 43:704-715.
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