NWO ALW grant for Jo Huiqing Zhou and Simon van Heeringen

Jo Huiqing Zhou, theme Reconstructive and regenerative medicine and Simon van Heeringen, theme Infectious diseases and global health, received an NWO ALW grant for a project entitled: A matter of identity: master regulator p63-orchestrated transcription factor circuitry in the epithelial cell fate determination of normal development and disease.

Jo Huiqing Zhou
Simon van Heeringen

In regenerative medicine, organ repair or replacement using cells and tissues generated from patients’ own material is promising and shows rapid development. Understanding how cell identity is determined is instrumental to effectively drive this progress. Cell fate determination is a complex process that is essential for normal development, and disruption of this process gives rise to developmental diseases. The aim of this ALW-Open project is to identify deterministic transcription factors for two epithelial cell types, epidermal and corneal limbal cells. As the transcription factor p63 is a key regulator in epithelial cell determination, we will identify p63-centered transcription factor networks that are important for defining specific epidermal and limbal fates and for related diseases, using multi-omics (transcriptomics, epigenomics and  proteomic) analyses  in combination with computational modeling. The identified key factors can be applied for controlled cell type conversions, especially towards corneal limbal cells that are difficult to obtain, thus providing tools for regenerative medicine. This project will also shed light on mechanisms of disorders related to epithelial development.

 Jo Huiqing Zhou
 Simon van Heeringen