Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv UniversityMolecular Analysis of Ubiquitin and SUMO Pathways in C. elegans and Schmidtea mediterranea

Protein modifications by ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins are essential for cellular regulatory mechanisms. De-regulation of such processes are a cause for many human diseases. The main objective of our research is to understand, at a mechanistic and molecular level, how these processes are regulated. We use the nematode C. elegans as a model system to analyze various elements of the ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like  systems.

Recently we added to our laboratory another model, the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea that will help us to reveal the functions of SUMO during regeneration

Current lab projects:

1. Sumoylation dynamics during tissue morphogenesis

2. Regulation of assembly of cytoskeletal filaments by sumoylation

3. SUMO in the mitochondria

4. Sumoylation dynamics in maintenance of germ cells identity

5. SUMO in planarian regeneration