Developmental Biology, Stem Cells & Aging

Metazoan biology requires cells to develop into defined cell types, with stem cells providing key regenerative capacity. Aging is the cumulative failure of regeneration and cellular maintenance. MCB faculty explore how organisms develop from single cells, how stem cells provide regrowth, and how loss of function in fundamental processes contributes to aging.

Suggested Courses

Autumn

CONJ 542
Cell Biology of Development

MCB 522
The Developmental Basis of Human Disease

winter

CONJ 544
Protein Structure, Modification and Regulation

CONJ 530
Directing Stem Cells Toward Regenerative Medicine

spring

MCB 539
Biological Basis of Neoplasia

An 18 hour-old zebrafish embryo expressing GFP in isolated cells in the notochord and floorplate. Photo credit: Andrew Mathewson MCB ’17.

Beginnings and endings

Seattle is a center for Developmental Biology research, with over sixty labs at the UW, Fred Hutch and Seattle Children’s Research Institute dedicated to understanding fundamental mechanisms of development in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate model systems. Seattle is home to the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine (ISRCM), one of the premiere places in the world to study stem cell biology and regeneration. On the other end of the life spectrum, the University of Washington is a central hub for aging research, with the Biology of Aging program and home of a Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, as well as the Dog Aging Project. Seattle MCB faculty members delve deep into understanding the basic biological mechanisms that define major life transitions, from gamete to zygote to adult organism, and then from healthy young adult through old age.

Faculty Area Directors: Cecilia Moens, Hannele Ruohola-Baker

Student Area Directors: Marielle Beaulieu (she/her), LuLu Callies, Avery Angell Swearer (She/Her), Courtney Vishy

Area Of interest Faculty

Featured Research

Area Directors & Suggested Courses

Faculty Area Directors: Cecilia Moens, Hannele Ruohola-Baker

Student Area Directors: Marielle Beaulieu, LuLu Callies, Avery Angell Swearer, Courtney Vishy

Suggested Courses: 2021-2022 suggested courses

Lab Openings

Bedalov Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Abitua Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Developmental Biology, EvoDevo, Cell Biology, Killifish

Wills Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Transcriptional regulation of vertebrate regeneration

Mendenhall Lab:
Summer

Gene Expression, Epigenetics, Aging, Ras, Cancer, Neurodegeneration

Freedman Lab:
All Quarters

organoid, pluripotent, kidney, lung, signaling, epithelial

Beronja Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

stem cells, progenitor cells, screens, mouse models

Swalla Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Evolution and Development, Genetics, Regeneration

Berg Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

development, evolution, patterning, morphogenesis, Drosophila, cell signaling

Cabernard Lab:
Permanent Position

Asymmetric cell division, stem cells, Drosophila, cell division, cytokinesis

Disteche Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

epigenetic regulation,chromatin structure,gene regulation,dosage compensation,X chromosome,nuclear structure

Giachelli Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

vascular calcification, phosphate, calcific aortic valve disease, engineered osteoclasts

Ghajar Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Tumor microenvironment, metastasis, immunology, tumor dormancy, breast cancer

Moens Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

zebrafish, genetics, developmental biology, neural development, motor neuron, planar cell polarity, neuroepithelial morphogenesis, neuronal migration, axon guidance.

Trapnell Lab:
Permanent Position

Single cell genomics, development, gene regulation, chromatin

Termini Lab:
Spring, Summer, Permanent Position

Hematopoietic stem cells, microenvironment, radiation, microscopy

Dhaka Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

pain, temperature, dorsal root ganglion, trigeminal ganglion, drug development

Miller Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter

hypoxia, hydrogen sulfide, stress, epigenetics, aging

Doulatov Lab:
All Quarters

Raible (he, him) Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

zebrafish, hair cell, deafness, genetics, crispr

Beier Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Developmental genetic analysis in model organisms

Lein Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Human brain atlas, single cell transcriptomics, electrophysiology, cellular morphology, enhancer, Alzheimer's disease, gene therapy

Chen Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter

rhabdomyosarcoma, cancer, zebrafish, self-renewal, differentiation, muscle

Escobar Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Epigenetics, chromatin, immunology, biochemistry

Gu Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Protein-protein interaction, Protein Barcoding, In Situ Sequencing

Hadland Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

hematopoietic stem cell biology, developmental hematopoiesis, leukemic stem cells

Ruohola-Baker Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

stem cells, adult stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, metabolites, epigenetics, microRNA, cardiomyocyte maturation, apoptosis

Horwitz Lab:
Summer

Genetics, Genomics, Leukemia, Bone Marrow Failure, Cell Fate Maps

Kiem, MD, PhD Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Kiem Lab, cell and gene therapy, blood and marrow stem cells, novel genome editing technologies, stem cell transplant, fanconi anemia

Dudakov Lab:
Spring, Winter

Thymus, T cell development, Regeneration, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Young Lab:
All Quarters

stem cells, neurons, alzheimer's disease

Nemhauser (She/Her) Lab:
Spring, Winter

auxin, synthetic biology, developmental biology, plant biology

Chamberlain Lab:
Spring

Gene therapy, muscular dystrophy, CRISPR/Cas9, AAV vectors, lentiviral vectors, dystrophin, FKRP, DMD, LGMD, genome editing

Parrish Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Somatosensory neuron development in Drosophila

Kaeberlein Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

aging, longevity, geroscience, mTOR, rapamycin, sirtuins, mitochondria, hypoxia, hypoxic response, HIF-1, Sir2, TOR, yeast, C. elegans, nematode, mice, dogs

Cheung Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

metastasis, cell-cell interactions, breast cancer

Kraemer Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheiemer's disease, Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neurodegeneration, tau, TDP-43, protein aggregation, proteostasis

Stevens Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Bioprinting, tissue engineering, liver, heart, vascularization

Kueh Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Systems immunology, single-cell biology, T cells, development, gene regulation, signaling

Crisa Lab:
Summer, Winter

innate immunity, myeloid cells, pancreatic islets, diabetes

Lehrbach Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

proteasome, proteostasis, aging, C. elegans, genetics

Sullivan Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Metabolism, cancer, mitochondria, respiration, amino acids, lipids, mass spectrometry, metabolomics

Bothwell Lab:
Winter

Neurotrophin, Receptor, Motor Neuron, CMT2, receptor tyrosine kinase, ALS, endocytic sorting, neuromuscular junction, primary cilia

MacCoss Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

proteomics, protein biochemistry, bioinformatics, technology development, big data, quantitative analysis, model organisms, aging, Alzheimer's disease, mass spectrometry

Neitz Lab:
Spring

color vision genetics, retinal gene therapy, myopia, spectral tuning, cone photopigment

Setty Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Single-cell genomics, Cell fate determination, Computational Biology, Machine Learning

Paddison Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cancer, RNAi

Pallanck Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Oshima Lab:

Aging, Genetics, Progeria, Werner syndrome

Promislow Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

senescence, aging, sexual selection, mating, cost of reproduction, Drosophila, metabolomics, quantitative genetics, theory, systems biology, dogs

Rasmussen Lab:
Winter, Permanent Position

zebrafish, development, regeneration, organogenesis, neurodegeneration, skin

Tian Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

mitochondria, energetics, heart failure, immunometabolism

Kwon Lab:
All Quarters

development, disease, regeneration, genetics, zebrafish, computation, systems biology

Sancak Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

mitochondria, calcium, signaling, organellar interaction

Lee Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Hematopoietic stem cells, leukemia, splicing

Shechner Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Cellular architecture, Nuclear architecture, Noncoding RNAs, ncRNA, chromatin, nucleolus, RNA structure and function, RNA localization, technology development

Hoppins Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Mitochondria, membrane fusion, GTPase, apoptosis,

Yadav Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Kinase Signaling, Autism

Tapscott Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

DUX4, MyoD, NeuroD, cancer, immune evasion, germline cells, early embryo, muscular dystrophy

Parkhurst Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

wound healing, nuclear architecture, Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, Rho GTPases, cytoskeleton, actin nucleation, Drosophila, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, actin, microtubules, formins, actomyosin rings