On this page you will find some information about the "DynaMo" research group. The scientific focus of the group is the investigation of stem cell organization from a theoretical point of view.

Scientific environment

The project group has been founded in 2003. It is part of the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Leipzig. The work of our group is closely linked to activities at the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics Leipzig (IZBI) at the University of Leipzig.

Furthermore, there are various co-operations with experimental research groups, which are given in the description of the respective projects. Our group is actively involved in the

• DFG Priority Research Program (Schwerpunktprogramm) "Mechanisms of gene vector entry and persistence" (SPP1230)

• European Federation of Systematic Stem Cell Biology "EuroSyStem".

Research background

Stem cells play a prominent role in biology and life sciences. Not only in basic research fields such as cell or developmental biology, but also in medicine and clinical research their importance is growing more and more. The main reason underlying this broad interest in stem cells is their capacity to reconstitute functional tissues after disturbance or injury. They are able to produce a huge number of differentiated, functional cells and, at the same time, they maintain or even re-establish their own population.

If talking about stem cells one has to point out that there are two general classes of stem cells which have to be distinguished: embryonic stem cells (ESC) and adult tissue stem cells (TSC). To extract ESC an early embryo needs to be sacrificed which causes serious ethical questions in the human situation. This is different for TSC. For example hematopoietic (tissue) stem cells can be extracted from the bone marrow or even from the peripheral blood of adult organisms. Besides the unresolved question whether TSC are equally potent as ESC there is another major problem. These stem cells cannot be distinguished from other primitive, non-differentiated cell types morphologically, which makes it difficult to directly investigate them experimentally.

Recently, it has also been suggested that it is possible to re-induce ESC properties in differentiated cells (i.e. fibroblasts) of adult organisms by retrovirus-mediated transfection of these cells with a few transcription factors. Wehther the resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells represent a true alternative to ESC is currently under investigation.

Compared to the extensive experimental effort only very little theoretical work has been done in the field of stem cell research so far. However, as it becomes obvious that the complex regulatory mechanisms of stem cell organization can not be resolved on the basis of experimental studies alone, the need for theoretical concepts, mathematical models, and simulation techniques is more and more realised.

Applied methodology

To gain deeper insight into the regulatory and control mechanisms underlying stem cell organization, we apply different mathematical modeling techniques such as Monte-Carlo simulation, stochastic processes, or differential equations. To compare these theoretical results with experimental and clinical observations also bioinformatical as well as statistical methods to examine and interpret these data are applied.