Project

Muscle stem cells in different anatomical locations are programmed with distinct upstream regulators prior to acquiring myogenic identity. This intriguing observation is most evident between cranial and trunk/limb muscles, and it correlates with the fact that cranial muscle stem cells are functionally more robust in terms of expansion capacity, resistance to stress, and engraftment efficiency, when compared to those in the limb. In this project we are using genomic approaches (sn-RNAseq and sc-ATACseq) and mouse models to study how the unique properties of cranial muscle groups are defined, and how they impact on myopathies where only subsets of skeletal muscles succumb to the disease process.