Yan Jing
Texas A & M School of Dentistry
Dallas, Texas, United States
During development, stem cells or precursor cells undergo a series of lineage commitments to give rise to their terminal differentiation into mature, specialized cell types. These cells have been considered to reach their ultimate fate and have lost the ability to further differentiate into other cell types. However, recent breakthroughs have demonstrated that the previous understanding of cell lineage commitment is incorrect. Hypertrophic chondrocytes, hair cells, and tenocytes, which were thought to be the terminal cells within their lineages, can continue their cycles by starting a new journey via cell transdifferentiation or reprogramming. This symposium will provide a scientific update on the novel findings about the cell fate plasticity and its manipulation mechanism during craniofacial development and disease, which will offer an exciting new frontier for educators, researchers, and clinicians.
All speakers have rich experience in cell fate study. Dr. Ralph Marcucio will give an exciting talk about the transformation from chondrocytes to osteoblasts during skeletal repair and provide therapeutic options to treat large bone defect. Dr. Zhengyi Chen primarily studies the inner ear hair cell regeneration and its mechanisms via cell reprogramming. He will bring novel idea about hair cell regeneration for the treatment of human hearing loss. Dr. Yan Jing performs extensive research in TMJ biology. She will report unexpected discoveries of tendon-derived bone and its unique feature in TMJ formation and diseases. All speakers have agreed to attend this symposium.
Speaker: Ralph Marcucio, Ph.D – UCSF
Speaker: Zhengyi Chen, D.Phil. – Harvard Medical School
Speaker: Yan Jing – Texas A & M School of Dentistry
