Näthke/Blow collaborative research publication selected for ‘outstanding’ special collection July 18, 2018 A recent publication from the laboratories of Inke Näthke and Julian Blow has been selected for a special collection of outstanding 2017/early 2018 Journal of Cell Biology articles focused on Stem Cells and Development. The research was primarily conducted by Thomas Carroll as part of his PhD that he did jointly between the two labs. Thomas successfully used his experience from two rotation projects to propose and perform an exciting research project investigating the spatio-temporal dynamics of cell proliferation and the regulation of replication licensing in intestinal crypts. A preprint version of this publication contributed to Thomas being awarded the Molecular and Cellular Biology Prize 2017 from the School. Inke Näthke explained the findings of the research, “Thomas discovered that in living intestinal tissue, most proliferative adult stem cells spend considerable time in dormant periods of the G1 phase with their origins of replication unlicensed. This creates a temporal window for making fate decisions and facilitates the plasticity required for normal tissue homeostasis including rapid responses to injury. This ‘paused’ state is lost in Apc-mutant epithelium, which mimics early stages of cancer, consistent with reduced differentiation and indiscriminate proliferation.” An image from the publication has been selected as the cover for the special collection issue. The journal stated that “this image is outstanding and would provide the uniquely aesthetically pleasing representation of stem cells in the context of tissue homeostasis that we are looking for.” The full collection of papers will be online only: http://jcb.rupress.org/cc/stem-cells-and-development Paper: http://jcb.rupress.org/content/early/2018/03/28/jcb.201708023/tab-pdf
