Joshi Lab

Welcome to the Joshi Stem Cell Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas.

We are inquisitive about stem cells that form the basis of organismal development and tissue regeneration throughout life. In particular, we seek to understand their involvement in the origin and progression of cancer. 

The cellular building blocks of all multi-cellular organisms are called stem cells. Stem cells and their early descendants, progenitor cells, are immature cells that have remarkable properties to self-renew and generate specialized cell types. These primal cells are not only of paramount importance in normal tissue physiology as they also underpin the development and evolution of diseases like cancer, making them attractive candidates in therapeutic endeavors. Stem cell behavior and fate are intricately linked to the cellular microenvironment or niche within which it resides, and this niche is in turn dependent on the physiological state of the whole organism. Given their plasticity and differentiation potential, they are also valuable for modeling disease and hold great promise in regenerative therapies to repair and restore defective, injured or diseased tissues and organs.

Our research explores the fate and function of epithelial and mesenchymal stem/progenitor cells and niche mechanisms during development, tissue regeneration and cancer. We use a variety of in vivo and in vitro techniques including mouse models, organoid systems, lineage tracing, high resolution imaging, patient-derived xenografts, stem cell assays and single cell analyses to study stem and progenitor cell dynamics at the cellular and molecular level. Our core vision is to build new knowledge on highly plastic stem cell lineages in mammalian tissues that can be leveraged to generate innovative cancer prevention/treatment strategies and regenerative therapies.