Developmental stem cell biologist Dr.Chanchao Lorthongpanich has recently joined SiSCR after completing her postdoc training with Prof. Davor SOLTER and Prof. Barbara KNOWLES from Singapore.

Other than cloning, Dr.Chanchao is also known for her work on the role of cell-cell interactions in regulating cell-fate determination in early mammalian development and embryonic stem cells. Her work on the identification of the role of Hippo signaling pathway in embryonic lineage specification has been published, and selected as a cover page, in Genes and Development (impact factor of 11.6), a top-five research journal in the field of molecular biology and genetics and is ranked #1 among developmental biology research journals.

genes_coverReference: Lorthongpanich et al., 2013. Temporal reduction of LATS kinase in the early preimplantation embryo prevents ICM lineage differentiation. Genes and Development 27:1441-1446. (http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/27/13/1441.short)

Cover: The Hippo signaling pathway is required for proper lineage segregation in the early mouse embryo. When inhibited by LATS kinase knockdown, all embryonic cells adopt an epithelial, trophectoderm-like cell fate. Shown here is an aggregation of a GFP-positive control embryo (green, top portion) and a LATS kinase knockdown embryo (bottom portion). The trophectoderm marker CDX2 (red) is detected only in the outer cells of the control (yellow) but in every cell of the knockdown embryo, regardless of cell positioning.