Pyroptotic macrophages posthumously sculpt immune responses. The life of an organism relies on the timely birth and death of its cells. Importantly, it is crucial for cells to die not only at the right time, but also in an appropriate manner. This proposal investigates a cell death pathway that triggers potent immune responses. This proposal seeks to reveal precisely how cell death sculpts immune responses. Expected outcomes include new insights into how immune cells die, and how they instruct i ....Pyroptotic macrophages posthumously sculpt immune responses. The life of an organism relies on the timely birth and death of its cells. Importantly, it is crucial for cells to die not only at the right time, but also in an appropriate manner. This proposal investigates a cell death pathway that triggers potent immune responses. This proposal seeks to reveal precisely how cell death sculpts immune responses. Expected outcomes include new insights into how immune cells die, and how they instruct immune responses from beyond the grave. Project benefits include a fundamental understanding of how cell death signalling sculpts tissue immune responses, and knowledge of how to manipulate cell death responses for future basic research and commercial applications beyond this project.Read moreRead less
Defining how signalling pathways cooperate to regulate organ size. Control of organ size is essential for organ function and organism viability, and varies greatly across the animal kingdom. This project aims to understand how three important signalling pathways co-ordinately regulate organ size during development and also limit aberrant growth. By applying genomics, genetics and bioinformatics techniques, this project aims to discover a core set of growth genes that are regulated by different s ....Defining how signalling pathways cooperate to regulate organ size. Control of organ size is essential for organ function and organism viability, and varies greatly across the animal kingdom. This project aims to understand how three important signalling pathways co-ordinately regulate organ size during development and also limit aberrant growth. By applying genomics, genetics and bioinformatics techniques, this project aims to discover a core set of growth genes that are regulated by different signalling pathways and the mechanism by which transcription of these genes is repressed in order to eliminate faulty cells. Intended benefits are creation of jobs, new knowledge on fundamental principles of life and the stimulation of new research into organ size control.Read moreRead less
Defining how cells relay mechanical signals to changes in cell architecture. Mechanical signals play crucial roles in shaping organs and entire organisms during development, though how these signals are relayed to changes in cell architecture is a major unanswered question. Within vascular networks, mechanical signals including fluid flow, tension and stretch play key roles in vessel patterning, identity and maturation. This application aims to employ cutting-edge technologies to determine how t ....Defining how cells relay mechanical signals to changes in cell architecture. Mechanical signals play crucial roles in shaping organs and entire organisms during development, though how these signals are relayed to changes in cell architecture is a major unanswered question. Within vascular networks, mechanical signals including fluid flow, tension and stretch play key roles in vessel patterning, identity and maturation. This application aims to employ cutting-edge technologies to determine how the atypical cadherin FAT4 relays mechanical signals including flow and tension to the lymphatic endothelial cell skeleton, thereby enabling changes in cell shape important for building lymphatic vessels. This project will increase our understanding of how cells sense touch and may be applied for tissue engineering purposes.
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