Injuries to the spine and joints heal poorly because the cells that should rebuild cartilage and other tissues rarely return to a regenerative state. We use single-cell genomics to follow how individual cells change their identity during development, injury, and repair, and to find ways to steer them toward regeneration.
What we study
- Single-cell maps of cell fate. Our time-resolved single-cell profiling of the Xenopus mucociliary epithelium showed that cell types can arise through non-hierarchical, convergent routes. We apply the same approach to injured and regenerating tissue.
- Cartilage and joint biology. With collaborators we have shown how chondrocytes maintain cartilage, for example through ER-associated degradation and integrin regulation by ITGBL1, which protects against arthritis.
- Chondrocyte blastema formation. We study how chondrocytes form a regenerative blastema after injury, as a basis for spine and joint repair.
Selected publications
Leading studies
- Chae S#, Park TJ, Kwon T*. (2023) Convergent differentiation of multiciliated cells. , Sci Rep., 13(1):23028. PMID:38155158 doi:10.1038/s41598-023-50077-5.
Collaborative works
- Lee J, Møller AF, Chae S, Bussek A, Park TJ, Kim Y, Lee HS, Pers TH, Kwon T, Sedzinski J, Natarajan KN. (2023) A single-cell, time-resolved profiling of Xenopus mucociliary epithelium reveals nonhierarchical model of development. , Sci Adv., 9(14):eadd5745. PMID:37027470 doi:10.1126/sciadv.add5745.
- Sim HJ, Cho C, Kim HE, Hong JY, Song EK, Kwon KY, Jang DG, Kim SJ, Lee HS, Lee C, Kwon T, Yang S*, Park TJ* (2022) Augmented ERAD (ER-associated degradation) activity in chondrocytes is necessary for cartilage development and maintenance , Sci Adv., 8(3):eabl4222 PMID:35061535 doi:10.1126/sciadv.abl4222
- Kakebeen AD, Huebner RJ, Shindo A, Kwon K, Kwon T, Wills AE, Wallingford JB (2021) A temporally resolved transcriptome for developing "Keller" explants of the Xenopus laevis dorsal marginal zone , Dev. Dyn., 250(5):717-731 PMID:33368695 doi:10.1002/dvdy.289
- Song EK, Jeon J, Jang DG, Kim HE, Sim HJ, Kwon KY, Medina-Ruiz S, Jang HJ, Lee AR, Rho JG, Lee HS, Kim SJ, Park CY, Myung K, Kim W, Kwon T, Yang S, Park TJ (2018) ITGBL1 modulates integrin activity to promote cartilage formation and protect against arthritis , Sci Transl Med., PMID:30305454 doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aam7486