Dr. Silvia Schirge
Animal models and Transgenic Unit
We are using various mouse models to address questions in the field of endoderm and pancreas development, endocrine lineage formation in gut and pancreas as well as beta-cell maturation and regeneration.
We are using various mouse models to address questions in the field of endoderm and pancreas development, endocrine lineage formation in gut and pancreas as well as beta-cell maturation and regeneration.
Research Topics
The IDR is using various mouse models to address questions in the field of endoderm and pancreas development, endocrine lineage formation in gut and pancreas as well as beta-cell maturation and regeneration. Therefore, we use knockout and conditional knockout approaches, cell lineage tracings and reporters for expression analysis. Our different mouse models are generated by manipulation of mouse embryonic stem cells using the CRISPR homology-directed repair (Dr. Ingo Burtscher) and diploid aggregation with wildtype embryos.
Furthermore, we use the tetraploid complementation system to directly generate mutant embryos from modified embryonic stem cells for early embryonic analysis.
The endoderm germ layer is giving rise to the epithelial lining of the respiratory and the gastrointestinal tract and can be therefore seen as stem cells of endoderm-derived organs such as liver, lung and pancreas. We aim to understand how the lineage decision of pluripotent cells towards the endoderm is taken, how theses precursor cells form the actual germ layer and how they differentiate towards different subpopulations of the endoderm giving rise to various organs along the body axis. Investigating endoderm specification and formation in vivo will help to translate the findings to the cell culture dish to successfully generate endoderm derived cell types in vitro.
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