Senescence and cellular plasticity.

Our laboratory is interested in the study of cellular senescence, an intrinsic anti-proliferative response with essential roles in diverse physiological and pathological settings. Senescence has a well established role as an anti-tumour barrier. But recent evidence shows that senescence is a widespread response, involved in many different contexts, including wound healing, fibrosis, regeneration or development. In many of these settings the function of senescence seems to be related to the control of cellular plasticity and the balance between stemness and differentation. With this background, our general objective is to understand the physiological regulation of senescence and how senescence dysfunction can lead to pathologies. To approach these questions, we use a variety of experimental approaches and tools, including cellular models of senescence, genome-wide analyses (RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq), and animal models.