How do stem cell units (stem cells and their niches) form?

How do they function?

 

These questions are fundamental to our understanding of organogenesis and the answers will impact how we approach normal development, disease and regeneration.

 

We are using the ovary of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to understand how Germ line Stem Cells (GSCs) and their somatic niches develop. In particular, we analyze the development of these two stem cell unit components is co-regulated to allow the exact number of niches and stem cells to  form at the correct time.