School of Biomedical Sciences cordially invites you to join the RGC GRF/ECS 2025-26 Brainstorming Workshop – Research Seminar by Professor Lukas Sommer:

Speaker: Professor Lukas Sommer, Director of Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Co-Director of SKINTEGRITY.CH
Talk Title: Neural Crest Stem Cell Programs in Development, Skin Wound Healing, and Tumor Formation

Date: 30 August 2024 (Friday)
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Venue: Boardroom, 1/F, Daniel & Mayce Yu Administration Wing, 21 Sassoon Road

Biography

Lukas Sommer is a full professor at the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and the current Director of the Institute. Lukas Sommer is also Co-Director of SKINTEGRITY.CH, a Swiss research consortium investigating chronic skin defects and malignant skin diseases.

Lukas Sommer studied biology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and obtained his PhD in 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland. After a postdoctoral fellowship at CALTECH in Pasadena, USA, he returned to Switzerland as a research group leader at the ETH Zurich in 1997, where he became Assistant Professor in 2001. In 2007, he was appointed full professor at the University of Zurich, where he has a dual affiliation with the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science.

Abstract

Neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) are a transient embryonic stem cell population with one of the broadest developmental potentials in vivo. There is increasing evidence that an embryonic NCSC program is re-activated during tumorigenesis, notably for melanoma initiation, metastasis formation, and therapy resistance. Likewise, we recently found that peripheral glial cells dedifferentiate upon skin injury into NCSC-like states normally found in the embryo and engage in paracrine signaling, secreting growth factors and cytokines functionally linked to wound healing. Interestingly, similar cells also contribute to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) formation by secreting factors promoting a pro-tumorigenic environment. Using genetically engineered mouse models, organotypic 3D culture systems, and single-cell RNA sequencing, we reveal that both NCSC-like repair glia in wounds and tumor-associated glia (TAGs) in cSCC act as signaling hubs, orchestrating cell-cell interactions essential for skin wound healing and cancer development.

ALL ARE WELCOME