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Talk by Kai Kretzschmar

Title: "Oral epithelial stem cell niches in health and disease"
Occasion: SFB Seminar
Start: 05.12.2024 4:15 pm
Location: CellNanOs, 38/201

About the speaker: Dr. Kai Kretzschmar conducts research at the Faculty of Medicine,
University of Würzburg

The mouth or oral cavity consists of the cheeks, gums, palate, and tongue. Without it and these specialised tissue compartments, eating, swallowing, tasting, and speaking would not be possible. As a multifunctional organ, the oral cavity has high structural heterogeneity. Each oral tissue is unique and contains distinct microenvironments (niches) for oral epithelial stem cells. In contrast to other epithelial tissues, such as the skin epidermis and the gut, the oral epithelia and their stem cell niches have been minimally explored. Here, I will discuss our recent efforts to gain a better insight into the cellular and molecular biology of oral epithelia in the steady state and disease using different methods, including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, 3D whole-mount imaging, and organoid technology.