The Pieters Laboratory—About
Essential role for coronin 1 in peripheral T cell survival. T cells in lymph nodes (red, left, in a wild type lymph node) are absent after depletion of the protein coronin 1 (right, in a coronin 1-deficient lymph node).
Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of cell density sensing
Maintenance of cell population size is fundamental to the proper functioning of multicellular organisms, yet the underlying mechanisms remain largely undefined. Our laboratory has recently defined members of the coronin protein family as key regulators of cell population size in a cell-intrinsic manner. The aim of our research is to analyze how coronin proteins orchestrate the processes involved in cell population size regulation and to delineate the molecular mechanisms involved.
Analyzing the coronin signaling pathway to understand how cells define their population size
Coronin proteins are expressed in all multicellular eukaryotes, having evolved at the time of unicellular-to-multicellular transition. In our laboratory, we are using multiple approaches to delineate coronin-mediated cell population size regulation, ranging from analysis of facultative multicellular amoeba, to in vitro and in vivo analysis of the coronin signaling pathway in mammals, including mice and humans.