Thesis subject

Stem Cell Dynamics during Planarian Regeneration

Planarian flatworms are true masters of regeneration. Even a tiny piece of the tail can repattern itself into a perfectly shaped worm by regrowing all missing body parts such as brain, nervous system and digestive tract. During this regeneration, stem cells need to divide, differentiate and migrate to produce the missing cell types at the correct position of the body. How this works is still poorly understood.

We offer several projects, which aim to gain understanding into all three aspects of stem cell dynamics during regeneration. The student will manipulate stem cell behavior and monitor the stem cell dynamics (e.g. by using in situ hybridization). The data will be compared to our theoretical predictions.

The skills your will be using/learning are e.g.: handling of planarian worms, in situ hybridization, microscopy, image analysis and PCR.