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In collaboration with the Shibata laboratory (USC), we proposed a novel approach to this problem that involves the
comparison of methylation patterns sampled from somatic cells and used this method to infer
the typical number of stem cells in a colon crypt. The method is however more general and has been applied to many different tissues.
In addition to investigating the continuous genealogy with clonal evolution of stem cells typified by colon crypt niches, we have examined human hair follicles, an example of a
punctuated genealogy caused by clonal succession. We have also reconstructed continuous genealogies for small intestinal crypts, endometrial glands and T cells, punctuated
genealogies for neutrophils and B cells, and static genealogies for tissue showing no increase in mitotic age with chronological aging, such as brain and heart.
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| Selected publications of ours in this area |
- Nicolas P, Kim K-M, Shibata D, and Tavare S The stem cell population of the human colon
crypt: analysis via methylation patterns. PLoS Comput Biol 2007 3, e28
- Shibata D, and Tavare S. Counting divisions in a human somatic cell tree: how, what and
why? Cell Cycle 2006 5, 610–614
- Kim JY, Tavare S, and Shibata D Human hair genealogies and stem cell latency BMC
Biol 2006 4, 2.
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