How are adult pluripotent stem cells (aPSCs) made and maintained? As a postdoc in the Srivastava Lab at Harvard University, I am currently embarking on molecular investigation in the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia to study the origin and maintenance of aPSCs. Hofstenia, has been developed as a new model system to address these long-standing questions about regeneration and its embryos are plentiful and accessible at early stages, making it a unique animal model to interrogate the links between development and regeneration. Hofstenia can regenerate any missing tissue and in the Srivastava Lab, Hofstenia development has been described in detail with a developmental staging series based on morphology, with accompanying transcriptome data. Recent work in the lab has revealed that a pair of cells give rise to cells that resemble aPSCs in distribution, behavior, and gene expression. In the Srivastava Lab I have been studying pluripotency in the embryonic stem cell lineage and the maintenance of aPSCs in the adult animal.
To read more about what is like to work with Hofstenia feel free to read this recent article written by myself and Harvard undergraduate Eliza Hirsch: A Day in the Life of a Hofstenia Lab.
Publications:
Paul Bump 