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An inability to regenerate wounded tissue is a major clinical problem with obvious application to human health. There are a limited number of human tissues that have the ability to regenerate, such as the human liver. Most tissues, however, have limited capacity for regeneration, and instead heal by forming scar tissue. Unfortunately, scars do not retain the original functionality of the tissue. Therefore, it is important to understand how to improve functional outcomes in human tissues that fail to regenerate or result in scar formation after tissue damage.
The goal of the laboratory is to understand how the body responds to physical damage and other inflammatory events. Specifically, how early wound signaling initiates a chain of gene expression changes that permit regeneration in the zebrafish model system. What are the earliest changes that occur in response to damage? We believe that early wound signals such as calcium and hydrogen peroxide promote immediate changes in microRNA (miRNA) expression at the wound. Further, these early changes in miRNA expression are essential in driving wound healing towards a regenerative outcome. My lab utilizes a combination of gene expression analysis, advanced microscopy, and gene expression manipulation techniques to investigate the pathways governing regeneration in the larval zebrafish.
The laboratory is also interested in better understanding the innate immune system. In particular, how are neutrophils and macrophages involved in inflammatory conditions? This includes during wound healing, but also during cancer progression. It is well established that cancer cells must avoid detection by the immune system. We seek to use the zebrafish model to better understand the mechanisms underlying cancer cell avoidance of neutrophils and macrophages.
The LeBert laboratory is part of the Department of Biology in beautiful Marquette Michigan along the shore of Lake Superior.
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