Detail

Keywords

Adrenergic Neurons

Research interests

My research program is currently focused around a problem of how cells compute their states during development of neural crest and craniofacial structures. Cells process the external stimuli according to their internal state, abiding by rules that remain poorly understood. Cell fate decisions are the key for constructing a multicellular organism. Errors, bias, or aberrant delays in making such decisions can lead to congenital abnormalities or, in extreme cases, to tumorigenesis. At the moment, I lead an interdisciplinary study to uncover the detailed molecular logic driving cell fate decisions in a context of multipotent neural crest lineage and neural crest-derived cancers such as pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma and neuroblastoma. To achieve this, I combine large-scale single-cell transcriptional measurements with color-multiplexed lineage tracing and diverse in vivo functional experiments using mouse, zebrafish and chick model systems. I extensively apply my expertise in developmental biology as well as complex statistical analysis of transcriptional trajectories and gene correlations to predict the regulatory and signaling machinery critical to progression of cells along the developmental trajectory and cell fate determination at bifurcation points. My computational and experimental pipelines developed in a broad collaborations with other researchers are applicable to other developmental and regenerative biology problems.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Single cell transcriptomics, Spatial transcriptomics, Massive parallel clonal analysis in vivo and in vitro, Computational data analysis, Lineage tracing in embryos, Advanced imaging.

Selected publications

1. Kameneva, P. et al. (2021) ‘Single-cell transcriptomics of human embryos identifies multiple sympathoblast lineages with potential implications for neuroblastoma origin’, Nature Genetics, 53(5), pp. 694–706. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00818-x.
2. Soldatov, R. et al. (2019) ‘Spatiotemporal structure of cell fate decisions in murine neural crest’, Science, 364(6444). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aas9536.
3. Furlan, A. et al. (2017) ‘Multipotent peripheral glial cells generate neuroendocrine cells of the adrenal medulla’, Science, 357(6346). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal3753.
4. Kaukua, N. et al. (2014) ‘Glial origin of mesenchymal stem cells in a tooth model system’, Nature, 513(7519), pp. 551–554. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13536.
5. Dyachuk, V. et al. (2014) ‘Parasympathetic neurons originate from nerve-associated peripheral glial progenitors’, Science, 345(6192), pp. 82–87. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1253281.