Cell Polarity in Development and Disease

Douglas Houston is a Professor at the University of Iowa. His research is focused on a central problem in developmental biology: how a single-celled egg differentiates into an organism containing many different cell and tissue types. Using frog embryos as a model organism, he and his lab have isolated numerous novel genes with potential roles in key pathways of ovum functions, including genes involved in PGC formation, morphogenesis, and TGF-beta and Wnt growth factor signaling.

1. Overview of cell polarity: insights from model organisms and cellular systems
2. Cell polarity in the egg and early embyro- mammal
3. Pluripotency and cell polarity
4. The role of cell polarity in adult stem cell maintenance
5. Integration of cell polarity and growth factor signaling
6. Cell polarity and the onset and progression of cancer
7. Cell division and cell polarity
8. Polarized membrane/vesicle trafficking and disease
9. Polarized microtubule transport and disease
10. Regulation of cell polarity in cell/neuronal migration
11. Apical and planar cell polarity in ciliated epithelia
12. Renal epithelial cell polarity and disease
13. Hepatic cell polarity and disease
14. Epidermal cell polarity and disease
15. Cell polarity and sensory cell defects