Study to Understand Oscillatory Mechanisms Affecting Cell Fate

Period: 1.02.2024 – 31.10.2024

Responsible executor: Reet Kurg

Funding: The project is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) via the Baltic-German University Liaison Office.

Until now, the processes by which cancer cells evade death and cause cancer recurrence are poorly understood. Previous studies by the Baltic groups (Prof. Reet Kurg in collaboration with Dr. Erenpreisa), using an embryonal carcinoma cell model treated with etoposide, demonstrated that cells can oscillate for several days between biological aging and spontaneous renewal. This bi-potential state, where cells pendulate between (pre-)senescence and spontaneous renewal, provides extra time for DNA damage repair.

The aim of the project is to induce the model cell system’s cells into a fluctuating state after etoposide treatment, to characterize the cell states before fluctuation, during fluctuation, and in the final outcome, and to correlate these states with chromatin organization. This will be parameterized by phase separation image analysis using confocal microscopy and topological data computation after collecting SMLM (Single Molecule Localization Microscopy) data.