BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Proteotoxic stress\, p53 and cell competition: mechanisms and impa ct on tissue colonisation - Prof Eugenia Piddini\; University of Bristol DTSTART:20221013T123000Z DTEND:20221013T133000Z UID:TALK176495@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Bobbie Claxton DESCRIPTION:My group’s main research interest is to understand how cell competition shapes tissues colonization in cellular communities. We and ot hers have shown that cell competition plays a major role in determining th e cellular composition of adult tissues in health and disease. By eliminat ing slow-growing and mis-specified cells\, it likely contributes to tissue fitness and perhaps delays the onset of ageing and disease. However\, it is also exploited by tumor cells to kill their neighbours and promote thei r own expansion. By unveiling the mechanisms of action of cell competition and its impact on adult tissue colonization we aim to power the use of th is biological process for therapeutic purposes.\n\nTowards that general ai m\, my group has taken two complementary approaches: one that builds on ou r strengths in Drosophila genetics to identify pathways directly relevant in vivo\, and another that exploits live imaging and the ease of mammalian cell manipulation in vitro to study the dynamics of this process and prov ide a platform to test mammalian relevance. Our work has demonstrated that cell competition plays a role in adult tissue homeostasis\, in cancer gro wth and in epithelial repair. We also discovered several new mechanisms an d molecular mediators of cell competition: we identified a new role for th e JAK/STAT pathway in cell competition and implicated JNK signalling and t he Hippo pathway in tumor/host cell competition\; we discovered mechanical cell competition and identified p53 as a key modulator of this type of ce ll competition\; we also discovered that the oxidative stress response and proteotoxic stress are leading causes of cell competition.\n\nIn addition to shedding light on the fundamental mechanisms that cells use to compete \, these discoveries provide a molecular swiss army knife of possible inte rventions to control and modify tissue colonization outcomes for therapeut ic applications\, in cancer and in regenerative medicine.\n\nAt my talk I will give an overview of some of our work\, focussing mostly on how proteo toxic stress and p53 lead to cell competition and I will discuss the relev ance of these types of cell competition to tissue health and biology.\n\n1 997\, BSc\, MSc in Bioogical Sciences\, University of Palermo\n2001 PhD in EMBL Heidelberg\, \n2002-2009 Postdoctoral work at MRC NIMR\, \n2010-2017 Group Leader\, The Gurdon Institute & University of Cambridge\, \n2017-pr esent\, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow\, University of Bristol\n201 7-present\, Professor of Cell Biology\, University of Bristol \n2019\, Win ner of the BSCB Hooke Medal \n\nClick here to join live - https://us06web. zoom.us/j/86537852784 LOCATION:Online via zoom &\; Kings Hedges Room END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR