Crestina Beites
Profile and Department: Assistant Professor, Midwifery Program, Laurentian University
Research Interests:
During embryonic brain development, instructive factors secreted by neighbouring cells influence neural stem cell behaviour. Stem cells interpret these factors as either self-renewing or differentiating programmes and consequently adopt specific fates: the stem cell either replenishes its undifferentiated stem cell pool or undergoes neurogenesis. Influential factors affecting disparate stem cell fate decisions play pivotal roles in normal brain development and repair. Not only do they control proper brain formation and function but aberrant signaling by these factors can also lead to 1) uncontrollable self-renewal as seen in neural cancers and 2) misdirected fate choices evident in pathologies involving abnormal organ formation and developmental disabilities of the nervous system. To understand the fundamental biology of neuron production, we are pursuing the role of the Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGF-b) superfamily in directing neural stem cell fate. Using genetic and biochemical approaches in neural tissue from transgenic mice lacking certain TGF-b superfamily genes our goal is to specifically define stem cell regulatory networks affected by TGF-b signaling