Project 3B: Wound Healing Mechanisms in Zebrafish
Project 3B studies tissue-wide organization of epithelial sheets emerging from multicellular coordination through wound sealing. Objectives include high-resolution imaging of calcium-actin and ROS in multiple tissue layers, generating optogenetic tool lines, establishing calcium tissue traveling models during wound closure, and defining input perturbations for biophysical models.
Research Outputs
Reactive oxygen species counteract zebrafish wound contraction and promote wound healing
ROS inhibits myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation to facilitate wound healing.
Figure 1. ROS drive wound relaxation.
Ding, C., et al. 2025. Reactive oxygen species counteract zebrafish wound contraction and promote wound healing. Biophysical Journal, 124, 1–16.
Atypical peripheral actin band formation via overactivation of RhoA and nonmuscle myosin II
MFN2 essential for proper cell polarization; loss triggers CaMKII, RhoA, and myosin activation.
Figure 5. Loss of MFN2 induces heightened RhoA activation in mice embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs).
Wang, Y., et al. 2023. Atypical peripheral actin band formation via overactivation of RhoA and nonmuscle myosin II. eLife, 12:e88828.