Webcast at keckmedia.usc.edu/stem-cell-seminar

The Pauli lab investigates new regulators of the egg-to-embryo transition, focusing mainly on short, uncharacterized proteins and post-transcriptional control mechanisms. By combining experimental and computational approaches, we have discovered two novel, short proteins, Toddler (Pauli et al, 2014) and more recently Bouncer (Herberg et al., 2018), which are both essential yet serve different functions: While Toddler is a secreted peptide that promotes cell migration during gastrulation, Bouncer acts as the gatekeeper of the oocyte by allowing sperm from the own species to enter while keeping foreign sperm out. Our recent discovery of Bouncer as a species-specific fertilization factor in fish has established fertilization as a new, exciting research direction in my lab. A second major line of investigation stems from our general interest in translational regulation and focuses on elucidating translational control mechanisms during the oocyte-to-embryo transition.

Host: Oliver Bell, PhD