Roeland Nusse
Academic Appointments
- Professor, Developmental Biology
- Member, Bio-X
- Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 723-7769
Professional Overview
Administrative Appointments
- Chair, Developmental Biology (2007 - 2012)
Honors and Awards
- Member, US National Academy of Sciences (2010)
- Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001)
- Member, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (1997)
- Member, European Molecular Biology Organization (1988)
Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations
Internet Links
Industry Relationships
Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industrial and other commercial partners. It is our policy to disclose payments (exclusive of travel support) from, and/or equity in, companies or other commercial entities to Stanford faculty of $5,000 or more in total value, as well as any equity in a privately held company, when the faculty member also has institutional responsibilities related to his or her interactions with the company. View Full Information
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
Our laboratory is interested in the growth, development and integrity of animal tissues. We study multiple different organs, trying to identify common principles, and we extend these investigations to cancer and injury repair. In most organs, different cell types are generated by stem cells - cells that also make copies of themselves and thereby maintain the tissue. An optimal balance between the number of stem and differentiated cells is essential for the proper function of the organs. Locally-acting signals are important to maintain this balance in a spatially-organized manner and these signals are key to understanding the regulation of growth.
A common theme linking our work together are Wnt signals. Work from many laboratories, including our own, has shown that Wnt proteins are essential for the control over stem cells. How this is achieved is far from clear and is the subject of studies in the lab, both in vivo and in cell culture. In vivo, a particular question we address is how physiological changes, such as those occurring during hormonal stimuli, injury or programmed tissue degeneration have an impact on the self-renewal signals and on stem cell biology.
Publications
- A localized Wnt signal orients asymmetric stem cell division in vitro. Science. 2013; (6126): 1445-8
- Developmental stage and time dictate the fate of Wnt/β-catenin-responsive stem cells in the mammary gland. Cell Stem Cell. 2012; (3): 387-400
- Secreted Wingless-interacting molecule (Swim) promotes long-range signaling by maintaining Wingless solubility. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (2): 370-7
- Embryonic stem cells require Wnt proteins to prevent differentiation to epiblast stem cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2011; (9): 1070-5
- Wnt proteins are self-renewal factors for mammary stem cells and promote their long-term expansion in culture. Cell Stem Cell. 2010; (6): 568-77
- Purified Wnt5a protein activates or inhibits beta-catenin-TCF signaling depending on receptor context. PLoS Biol. 2006; (4): e115
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