The interests of Dr. Ihor R. Lemischka's laboratory are focused on defining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control cell fate decisions in both adult and embryonic stem (ES) cells. A variety of genomic and functional genomic approaches have been utilized, and have led to important insights into how ES cells can maintain their undifferentiated state in vitro, and how these cells choose to commit to specific programs of differentiation. Currently, the insights gathered in the mouse ES cell system are being investigated in human ES cells. Efforts in the human ES cell system will become a major research focus.
Shen, Q., Wang, Y., Dimos, J.T., Fasano, C.A., Phoenix, T.N., Lemischka, I.R., Ivanova, N.B., Stifani, S., Morrisey, E.E., and Temple, S. (2006). The timing of cortical neurogenesis is encoded within lineages of individual progenitor cells. Nat Neurosci. 9:743-751.
Schaniel, C., Li, F., Schafer, X., Moore, T., Lemischka, I., and Paddison, P. (2006). Delivery of short hairpin RNAs- triggers of gene silencing into mouse embryonic stem cells. Nature Methods 3:6946-6951.
Moore, K.A. and Lemischka, I.R. (2006). Stem cells and their niches, Science 311:1880-1885.