Zeng Yi

Biography

ZENG Yi is a Professor Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Research Interest

The decision of stem cells to self-renew or differentiate into progenitors is regulated at multiple levels, including cell-intrinsic transcriptional programs and extra-cellular signals originating from a specialized niche. The mouse mammary gland provides an excellent system to study the adult stem cell self-renewal signals, as the organ develops post-natally, arises from stem cells and is readily generated from transplanted cells. We previously established that Wnts promote the self-renewal of mammary stem cells. Furthermore, we developed a method to culture and expand mammary stem cells in vitro for a long period with the maintenance of their full development potential. In the Zeng Lab, we combine molecular, cell biology and mice genetic approaches to identify the cellular mechanisms and the factors that regulate adult stem and progenitor cell behavior. We focus on the following questions: 1) What is the mechanism through which Wnt signals maintain the stem cell multipotent state? 2) How do the stem cells and their niche interact? 3) What is complete lineage of mammary development? Our long-term goal is to determine how the stem and progenitor cell regulatory mechanisms have deviated in breast cancer, and to learn how to control the players in these machineries for the purposes of regenerative and cancer medicine.