Cornell Center for Immunology Seminar-Ellen Rothenberg, PhD

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Flexing the T-cell specification gene regulatory network for fetal versus postnatal T-cell development

The Rothenberg group studies the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for developmental lineage choice as hematopoietic stem cells differentiate into T lymphocytes. This is a complex process in which stem-cell multipotentiality is lost in steps that actually overlap with the initiation of T-cell specific differentiation events. Thus, it offers unique insights into the nature of "stem-ness" and the distinction between activation of a development program and irreversible commitment to that program. The approaches used in the lab are a combination of in vitro developmental biology, high-resolution characterization of individual cell developmental states, and molecular genetics of gene regulation. Lunch provided.