The ability to externally control endogenous signalling pathways in mammalian cells is of fundamental importance for the understanding and manipulation of regulations involved in cell signalling, homeostasis and tissue formation.

The aim of this project is to achieve dynamic real-time control of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in living mammalian cells. We will use a microfluidic platform to enable real-time quantification of the pathway activity and its regulation by drugs; such regulation will be both at transcriptional and post- transcriptional levels, enabling full tunability.

Our experimental/computational framework could be later applied to regulate β-catenin dependent stem cell pluripotency phenotypes, to optimise induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) generation, and to better understand and control β-catenin in other contexts such as cancer and development in vitro and in vivo.

Project lead: Dr Lucia Marucci (systems and synthetic biology)