Research Topic

Research in the Wickström lab aims to understand how complex but stereotyped tissues are formed, maintained, and regenerated. We further aim to understand how cancer escapes established cell state barriers and tissue microenvironmental control, and how cancerous states could be forced into trajectories of normal morphogenesis as means to limit disease progression. To decipher these fundamental questions, we focus on how single cell states are regulated by mechanochemical signals and epigenetic barriers, how single cell behavior is coordinated on the population level, and how population-level dynamics is coupled to tissue-scale dynamics and architecture. These areas are pursued by a highly interdisciplinary research strategy that builds on mouse genetics and human patient material, combining scale-bridging tools of bioengineering and biophysics, machine learning-based quantitative imaging, genome-wide analyses, and computational modeling.

Selected Publications

• Villeneuve C, Hashmi A, Ylivinkka I, Lawson-Keister E, Miroshnikova YA, Pérez-González C, Myllymäki SM, Bertillot F, Yadav B, Zhang T, Matic Vignjevic D, Mikkola ML, Manning ML, and Wickström SA. (2024). Mechanical forces across compartments coordinate cell shape and fate transitions to generate tissue architecture. Nat Cell Biol 26(2):207-218. doi.org/10.1038/ncb3387.
• Bansaccal N, Vieugue P,  Sarate  R, Song  Y, Minguijon  E, Miroshnikova  YA, Zeuschner D, Collin  A, Allard  J, Engelman  D, Delaunois  AL, Liagre  M, de Groote L, Timmerman E, Van Haver  D, Impens F, Salmon  I, Wickström SA, Sifrim  A, Blanpain  C. (2023). The extracellular matrix dictates regional competence for tumour initiation. Nature 623(7988):828-835. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06740-y.
• Koester J, Miroshnikova YA, Ghatak S, Chacón-Martínez CA, Morgner J, Li X, Atanassov I, Koch M, Bloch W, Bartusel M, Niessen CM, Rada-Iglesias A, Wickström SA.  (2021) Niche stiffening compromises stem cell potential during aging by reducing chromatin accessibility at bivalent promoters. Nat Cell Biol 7:771-781. doi: 10.1038/s41556-021-00705-x.
• Kim CS, Ding X, Allmeroth K, Biggs, LC, Kolenc OI, L’Hoest N, Chacón-Martínez CA, Edlich-Muth C, Giavalisco P, Quinn KP, Denzel M, Eming SA, Wickström SA. (2020) Glutamine metabolism controls stem cell fate reversibility and long-term maintenance in the hair follicle. Cell Metabolism 32, 629-642.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.08.011.
• Nava MM*, Miroshnikova YA*, Biggs LC, Whitefield DB, Metge F, Boucas J, Vihinen H, Jokitalo E, Li X, García Arcos JM, Hoffmann B, Merkel R, Niessen CM, Dahl KN, Wickström SA. (2020) Heterochromatin-driven nuclear softening protects the genome against mechanical stress-induced damage. Cell 181, 800-817. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.052.