Glauche Lab: Theoretical Stem Cell Biology

Stem cells are fascinating cells as they retain the potential to differentiate into distinct, functional cell types while at the same time maintaining their own population. As such, stem cells are the building blocks of development and sustained tissue function, and did also become the primary target for many cell based therapies. However, many regulating principles on the cellular and on the subcellular level are still not fully understood.

The Glauche Lab focuses on conceptual and quantitative aspects of stem cell regulation with a strong emphasis on hematopoietic stem cells. We are using differential equation models and agent-based modeling approaches to understand the organizational principles underlying the robust population behavior of these cells including aspects of clonal heterogeneity, regulation of stem cell turnover, stem cell exhaustion and aging, spatial organization, and feedback mechanisms. Our work extends towards models of disease pathogenesis and treatment in myeloid leukemia, but also looks at other stem cell systems such as embryonic or epithelial stem cells.

Research areas

Chronic and acute myeloid leukemia
Clonal competition phenomena
Cell fate regulation of mouse embryonic stem cells
Modelling of the ageing haematopoiesis
Natural competition and clonality of stem cells
Proliferation- and differentiation control of haematopoietic stem cells
Stem cell-niche interaction

Projects

current projects:

TKI-Stop — Predicting the risk of relapse after discontinuation of therapy for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML)
MinimaL — Machine-Learning-basierte Algorithmen zur Detektion von Resterkrankung bei Patient*innen mit akuter myeloischer Leukämie (Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung), gemeinsam mit PD Dr. Malte von Bonin (MK1, UKD)
Modellierung der Dynamik der Rekonstitution des Blutes nach Stammzelltransplantation mithilfe einer neutralen Barcode-Markierung für hochauflösende Zellverfolgung (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), gemeinsam mit PD Dr. Kerstin Cornils (Hamburg)

finished projects (selection):

CHOICE — Characterization of the osteo-hematopoietic niche during malignant evolution (DKTK)
PrediCt — Mathematical modelling of TKI effects and immune response to predict patient-specific treatment dynamics in CML (BMBF, EU)
MEDiC —Modellstudiengang Medizin (Bund, Freistaat Sachsen)
MessAge — Medical systems biology of ageing haematopoiesis: clonality, age-associated alterations, and related diseases (BMBF, e:Bio)
HaematoOPT — Model-based optimization and individualization of treatment strategies in hematology (BMBF, e:Med Demonstratoren)
Clonality of hematopoietic reconstitution: old versus young grafts in elderly recipients - lessons from mouse (Jackstaedt Stiftung)
Modeling the reconstitution dynamics of hematopoiesis after stem cell transplantation using neutral multicolor barcode marking for high-resolution cell tracking (DFG)
Molecular and Spatial Organization of mESCs (DFG)