Jonas Von Hofsten

Biography

Senior Lecturer Umeå Center for Molecular Medicine (UCMM)

Research Interest

Our research includes studies in cellular and developmental biological processes, such as cell specification and the signaling pathways that control this. The main focus is on the molecular mechanisms that control muscle development. The question is interesting from a purely basic research perspective, but is also relevant from a medical perspective, where most muscle degenerative diseases are still difficult to treat and impossible to cure. Getting knowledge of basic mechanisms behind muscle specification is important in understanding how muscle cells get their unique properties, and will increase the knowledge about the regulation of how fiber types are formed in different parts of the embryo during fetal development. The aim of our research is to gain knowledge about the mechanism of muscle development and how different cell types are specified during muscle differentiation in vertebrates - there sometimes humans. Zebrafish is a model system that is ideal for genetic analysis of regulation mechanisms for cell specification in vertebrates. The aim is to determine how fiber type specification occurs and how this is regulated at the molecular level in zebrafish. In the future this can also contribute to increased knowledge of diseases associated with specific types of muscle fibers.