Rosalind and Morris
Goodman Cancer
Institute Principal
Investigators
A fundamental question in regenerative biology concerns how stem cells perform behaviors such as self-renewal and differentiation at the right times and places to support lifelong maintenance of our tissues. In the Cockburn lab, we want to understand this problem in the context of skin, the essential barrier that protects us from the environment and one of the most high-turnover tissues in our bodies.
We combine fluorescently labelled mouse models with in vivo multiphoton microscopy, allowing us to visualize epidermal cells in the context of living adult skin and follow their behaviors over hours, days or even weeks as regeneration is taking place in real time. We combine this approach with a broad range of acute perturbations and genetic manipulations to better understand how regeneration is orchestrated at the level of individual cells, local cellular neighborhoods and tissue-wide cues.
What we are
currently
working on
The epidermis is the outermost layer of our skin and the essential protective barrier that separates our bodies from the outside environment. As part of this protective function, billions of terminally differentiated epidermal cells are shed from the body’s surface every day. The replacement of these cells is fueled by an underlying stem cell population that is continuously active, performing behaviors such as differentiation and self-renewal to sustain epidermal structure and function. These behaviors must occur at precisely the right times and places to maintain healthy skin and must also be highly responsive to changing environmental and physiological conditions. In the Cockburn lab, we aim to understand how epidermal stem cell behaviors are controlled and patterned across space and time during healthy skin regeneration and how these patterns go awry in the context of cutaneous disease.
- Comment la communication cellulaire déraille-t-elle dans les contexte de maladies ? Dans de nombreux cas, les maladies cutanées se produisent en mosaïque, ce qui signifie que des groupes de cellules mutantes et saines sont entremêlées dans la peau d'un patient. Nous créons des modèles génétiques pour visualiser et suivre à la fois les cellules saines et malades dans la peau vivante, dans le but de comprendre comment les interactions entre ces deux populations contribuent à la progression ou améliorent la progression de la maladie. How does cell communication go awry in disease? In many cases cutaneous diseases occur mosaically, meaning that patches of mutant and healthy cells are interspersed within a patient’s skin. We are generating genetic models to visualize and track both healthy and diseased cells in the living skin, with the goal of understanding how crosstalk between these two populations contributes to, or ameliorates, disease progression.
- Comment les cellules souches communiquent-elles entre elles ? Nous avons précédemment démontré que les cellules souches dans l'épiderme forment, les unes pour les autres, un environnement dynamique et en évolution constante, les choix du destin d'une cellule influençant le comportement ultérieur de ses voisines (Mesa*, Kawaguchi*, Cockburn* et al., 2018). Notre groupe vise maintenant à comprendre le langage moléculaire que les cellules souches utilisent pour communiquer entre elles alors qu'elles coordonnent leurs comportements. How do stem cells talk to one another? We previously demonstrated that stem cells in the epidermis act as a dynamic and ever-evolving niche for one another, with one cell’s fate choices influencing the later behavior of its neighbors (Mesa*, Kawaguchi*, Cockburn* et al, 2018). Our group now aims to understand the molecular language that stem cells use to talk to one another as they coordinate their behaviors.
- Comment les tissus s'adaptent-ils aux changements environnementaux ? La peau est confrontée au défi unique de protéger notre corps d'un environnement externe en constante évolution. Notre travail précédent a fourni une carte moléculaire et comportementale à haute résolution du processus de différenciation des cellules souches épidermiques (Cockburn*, Annusver* et al., 2022). Nous souhaitons maintenant comprendre comment les cellules souches modifient différents aspects de ce processus pour répondre aux demandes environnementales changeantes. How do tissues adapt to environmental change? The skin faces the unique challenge of protecting our bodies from a constantly changing external environment. Our previous work provided a high-resolution molecular and behavioral map of the epidermal stem cell differentiation process (Cockburn*, Annusver* et al. 2022). We now want to understand how stem cells modify different aspects of this journey in order to respond to changing environmental demands.
- Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Institute
- FRQS Junior 1 Research Scholar
Our team
Jacinthe Sirois Assistante de recherche Research Assistant 
Olivia Costanzo Étudiant.e de premier cycle Undergraduate Student 
Sophie Viala Étudiant.e au doctorat PhD Student 
Vandana Nathan Étudiant.e de premier cycle Undergraduate Student
Major discoveries
- 2018 Homeostatic epidermal stem cell self-renewal is driven by local differentiation.
- 2022 Gradual differentiation uncoupled from cell cycle exit generates heterogeneity in the epidermal stem cell layer.
- 2023 Live imaging reveals chromatin compaction transitions and dynamic transcriptional bursting during stem cell differentiation in vivo.
Research Partners
Get in touch
1160 Pine Avenue W.
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A3
Office: 915
Lab: 915
T. 514-398-4537
T. 514-398-4989
F.
katie.cockburn@mcgill.ca
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