Wayne Stallaert, Ph.D.

I am fascinated by the plasticity of the cell cycle and its extraordinary capacity to adapt to changes in the environment or genome. Resolving this diversity in cell cycle regulation is key to fully understanding biological problems ranging from development and regeneration to inflammation, aging and cancer, where the decisions of when and where to trigger cell division are of paramount importance. My lab combines advanced single-cell imaging and computational approaches to study cell cycle plasticity in its natural habitat: embedded within a complex, multicellular environment. Using patient-derived tissues and organoids, we investigate the contribution of cell cycle plasticity in tumorigenesis and cancer drug resistance, and how the spatial organization of a tumor shapes a cancer cell’s decision to proliferate or arrest.