Adler Lab
Principal Investigator: Carolyn Elizabeth Adler
Institution: Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Biological resilience is the ability of organisms to rebound from various stresses including tissue injury and exposure to toxins that cause DNA damage. Stem cells offer a potentially powerful line of defense against these insults through their ability to restore tissues, yet stem cells themselves are susceptible to deterioration from overuse or age, as a result of recurring cell divisions. To understand how stem cells can resist these types of insults, my lab studies one of the most resilient animals known, freshwater planarians. Planarians are famous for their ability to regenerate entire animals from tiny tissue fragments, due to an abundant population of stem cells. These stem cells appear to be inexhaustible: not only can they differentiate into any cell type, but they also maintain animal integrity throughout thousands of generations of asexual reproduction. Here, we will leverage the unique biology of planarian stem cells to identify conserved mechanisms responsible for their ability to regenerate repeatedly and to overcome significant genotoxic stress. The proposed experiments integrate prior findings with innovative tool development to advance our understanding of stem cel…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R35GM163946-01: Cellular and molecular mechanisms governing stem cell resilience (2026)
- 5R01GM139933-05: Mechanisms driving stem cell responses to injury in planarians (2024)
- 3R01GM139933-04S1: Mechanisms driving stem cell responses to injury in planarians (2024)
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