BIO Kenneth Zaret

Kenneth Zaret       

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Smilow Center for Translational Research, Philadelphia US  |  CV

The goal of Zaret’s laboratory at Smilow Center for Translational Research (SCTR), at Perelman School of Medicine, is to understand how genes are activated and different cell types are specified in embryonic development. These processes involve regulatory mechanisms that are used later in life to maintain human health, to respond to tissue damage, and during the initiation of cancers and other human diseases. The laboratory has two general approaches. First, we investigate the molecular signaling pathways that commit an undifferentiated embryonic cell, the endoderm, to a particular cell type fate, using the specification of liver and pancreas cells as a model. The second approach of the laboratory is to investigate ways that gene regulatory proteins control the packaging of DNA in the cell nucleus, to control gene activity. Understanding how regulatory proteins and cell signals control gene activity and cell type decisions in development will help guide future efforts to control the differentiation and function of cells at will. In recent work, the group used the specification of liver and pancreas cells in the mouse embryo to develop a fate map of the foregut endoderm and has made important contributions to the understanding of how genes are selectively activated during embryonic development. They found that the regulatory protein FoxA is a “pioneer” factor, which is necessary for exposing hidden genes sequences in chromosomes allowing other transcription factors to access DNA information.

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