HHMI Investigator
Professor of Integrative Biology
Morgridge Institute for Research
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Title: From planarians to parasites: unanticipated roles for monoamine transmitters
Abstract: Planarians are free-living flatworms with amazing regenerative abilities. In addition to their somatic tissues, planarians can also regenerate their germ cells. I will review our studies on the systemic control of reproductive system development and regeneration in planarians, and then present recent work to identify niche-derived factors that regulate germ cell development. This work will show how such signals are deployed differently between planarians and their parasitic cousins, the schistosomes, with important implications for the evolution of these parasites. Finally, I will discuss our efforts to characterize a natural product that paralyzes the infective larvae of schistosomes and can prevent them from infecting mammals.
Host: Iva Greenwald
