Professor Rebecca Morris

RSRCH Hormel Institute
Office of VP for Research
Twin Cities
Project Title: 
Identification of Keratinocyte Stem Cell Regulatory Genes

This research will use RNA and DNA sequencing to aid in the identification of novel regulatory genes in hair follicle stem cells of mice. This will be accomplished by fluorescence activated cell sorting of freshly harvested hair follicle stem cells followed by RNA isolation from enriched and depleted subpopulations, and analysis of RNA sequencing to determine differentially expressed transcripts in quantitative trait loci such as the Ksc2 locus identified previously by mapping of microsatellite markers. DNA sequencing will be used to look for sequence variants in a trait locus on chromosome 9 enriched in ancestral DNA. Candidate genes will be re-sequenced and confirmed by rtPCR, RNA in situ hybridization, and in vitro and in vivo functional studies of stem cells.

A second project uses single cell RNA-seq to identify and characterize a population of epithelial cells the researchers have found in human and murine blood and bone marrow. They expect to find that the EpCAM positive/cytokeratin positive epithelial cells are heterogeneous and overlap with hematopoietic and mesenchymal markers.

Project Investigators

Dr. Juan Abrahante Llorens
Stephanie Holtorf
Jeffrey McDonald
Professor Rebecca Morris
Nissi Paidimukkala
 
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