Scientific Interest(s):
Dr. April Pyle's laboratory is primarily interested in dissecting cell fate decisions required to maintain stable, pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and how this information may be applicable to embryonic development and cellular specification. How hESCs make decisions to survive, self-renew or differentiate is not currently well understood. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms associated with cell fate decisions and what happens when these decisions go awry, leading to cellular transformation. It is becoming increasingly evident that genes known to perform critical roles during early embryogenesis, particularly during stem cell renewal, pluripotency and survival are also expressed during the development of cancer. Pyle's lab will use hESCs as a model system to examine not only stem cell biology and differentiation, but also to improve our understanding of cancer progression and human development.
Selected Cancer-Related Publications:
Conway AE, Lindgren A, Galic Z, Pyle AD, Wu H, Zack JA, Pelligrini M, Teitell MA, Clark A. A Pluripotency and Self-Renewal Program Controls the Expansion of Genetically Unstable Cancer Stem Cells in Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Tumors. Stem Cells. 2008 Oct 2. [Epub ahead of print]
Lowry WE, Richter L, Yachechko R, Pyle AD, Tchieu J, Sridharan R, Clark AT, Plath K. Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from dermal fibroblasts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Feb 26;105(8):2883-8. Epub 2008 Feb 15.
Wu H, Kim KJ, Mehta K, Paxia S, Sundstrom A, Anantharaman T, Kuraishy AI, Doan T, Ghosh J, Pyle AD, Clark A, Lowry W, Fan G, Baxter T, Mishra B, Sun Y, Teitell MA. Copy Number Variant Analysis of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Stem Cells. 2008 Jun;26(6):1484-9. Epub 2008 Mar 27.
Pyle, AD, Lock, L, Donovan, PJ. Neurotrophins mediate human embryonic stem cell survival. Nature Biotechnology. 2006; 24:344-350.
Pyle AD, Donovan PJ, Lock L. Chipping away at stemness. Genome Biology. 2004; 5(8):235.