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.

Model Curricula

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, Matt Kaeberlein

Student Area Directors: Lauren Saunders, Lauren Rajchel-Loh

Area Of interest Faculty

Featured Research

Area Directors

Faculty Area Directors: Matt Kaeberlein, Cecilia Moens

Student Area Directors: Rachel Wellington, Courtnee Clough, Jeet Patel

Lab Openings

Bedalov Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Wills Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

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:
Autumn, Summer, Permanent Position

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

Cabernard Lab:
All Quarters, 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

Ghajar Lab:
Autumn, 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.

Dhaka Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter

Miller Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

hypoxia, hydrogen sulfide, stress, epigenetics, aging

Doulatov Lab:
All Quarters

Raible Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

zebrafish, lateral line, hair cell, hearing, deafness, genetics, crispr

Beier Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Beier DR[Author]

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:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

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

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

The Kiem Lab studies cell and gene therapy with a particular interest in the biology of blood and marrow stem cells and the development and use of novel genome editing technologies. The overall goal is to develop better stem cell transplant and cell and g

Young Lab:
All Quarters

stem cells, neurons, alzheimer's disease

Smith Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

adenovirus, HPV, rotavirus, defensins, enteroid, Paneth cells, Crohn's disease

Nemhauser Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

auxin, synthetic biology, developmental biology, plant biology

Chamberlain Lab:
Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

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:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, 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

collective invasion, tumor organoids, tumor cell clusters, metastasis

Kraemer Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

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

Torii Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Kueh Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

Immunology, stem cell biology, quantitative biology, systems biology, synthetic biology, live-cell imaging,

MacCoss Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

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

Setty Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

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

Bermingham-McDonogh Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, Permanent Position

Hair cells, inner ear, neurogenesis, regeneration, stem cells, cochlea, vestibular, auditory, ATAC -Seq, Single cell RNA-Se

Paddison Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Cancer, RNAi

Pallanck Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Promislow Lab:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Permanent Position

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

Nelson Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

hormonal carcinogenesis, tumor microenvironment, androgen receptor, prostate cancer, mutation, biomarkers, metastasis

Rasmussen Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

zebrafish, development, regeneration, organogenesis, neurodegeneration, skin

Yablonka-Reuveni Lab:

Tian Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

mitochondria, energetics, heart failure, immunometabolism

Kwon Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

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

Sancak Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

mitochondria, calcium, signaling, organellar interaction

Lee Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

Hematopoietic stem cells, leukemia, splicing

Shechner Lab:
All Quarters, Permanent Position

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

Hoppins Lab:
Autumn, Spring, Winter, 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