Samantha Morris Lab

The Morris Lab is a stem cell and developmental biology laboratory based in the Departments of Genetics, and Developmental Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Our research focuses on dissecting the gene regulatory networks that define cell fate. We apply this knowledge to engineer clinically relevant cell types.

Goyal Lab

How to initiate tissue regeneration by generating mutually exclusive cell states

A healing wound is made of cells that paused proliferation and secrete mitogenic factors and cells that proliferate to replace those lost to cell death. A new study in PLOS Biology describes how 2 conserved signaling pathways could repress each other to create these mutually exclusive cell states.

Unveiling the RNA-guided mechanisms driving cell fate

The early stages of embryonic development contain many of life's mysteries. Unlocking these mysteries can help us better understand early development and birth defects, and help develop new regenerative medicine treatments.

Sequential events during the quiescence to proliferation transition establish patterns of follicle cell differentiation in the Drosophila ovary

Summary: Epithelial follicle stem cells in the fly ovary depend on dynamic, axon-like cytoplasmic projections to re-establish cell fate patterning after a period of nutrient restriction.

Bilateral JNK activation is a hallmark of interface surveillance and promotes elimination of aberrant cells

Early enforcement of cell identity by a functional component of the terminally differentiated state

How can progenitor cells attain a distinct differentiated cell identity, given the fluctuating signaling environment and redundancy of critical transcription factors? This study identifies a control principle whereby progenitor cells induced to differentiate can reach the desired distinct differentiated cell fate despite the possibility of many alternative fates en route.