Andromeda Van Roten

• Hasselt University

Planarians have been long known for their regenerative ability, which hinges on pluripotency. Recently, however, the planarian model has been successfully established for routine toxicological screens aimed to assess over-proliferation, mutagenicity and tumorigenesis. In this study, we focused on planarian tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) and their ro...

Aiming to in vivo characterise the responses of pluripotent stem cells and regenerative tissues to carcinogenic stress, we employed the highly regenerative organism Schmidtea mediterranea. Its broad regenerative capacities are attributable to a large pool of pluripotent stem cells, which are considered key players in the lower vulnerability towards...

Flatworms are acknowledged for their stem cell system and consecutive regenerative ability. From a toxicological point of view, stem cells are an interesting object of study, as they enable organisms to cope with stress. Previous research on the freshwater flatworm and model organism Schmidtea mediterranea revealed a substantially higher general (s...

A delicate balance exists between the process of carcinogenesis and tissue regeneration. A number of malignant tumours are considered the outcome of an impaired or incomplete regeneration process, resulting in persistently dividing cells. Regeneration-competent tissues and animals are able to prevent and counteract growth abnormalities and seem to...

Supplementary Figure 1: Quantification of the ROS-induced fluorescence is presented as well as figures showing the lack of autofluorescence and visualization of ROS production in neuronal-like structures. Supplementary Figure 2: The ratio of mitochondrial DNA versus nuclear DNA is presented. Supplementary Figure 3: Shows the visualization and quant...

A delicate balance exists between the process of carcinogenesis and tissue regeneration. A number of malignant tumours are considered the outcome of an impaired or incomplete regeneration process, resulting in persistently dividing cells. Regeneration-competent tissues and animals are able to prevent and counteract growth abnormalities and seem to...

Recent research highlighted the impact of ROS as upstream regulators of tissue regeneration. We investigated their role and targeted processes during the regeneration of different body structures using the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, an organism capable of regenerating its entire body, including its brain. The amputation of head and tail comp...

The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is a well-studied model organism for developmental research, because of its stem cell system. This characteristic also provides a unique opportunity to study stress management and the effect of stress on stem cells. In this study, we characterised the stress signature at different levels of biological organizati...

The flatworm species Schmidtea mediterranea and Macrostomum lignano have become new and innovative model organisms in stem cell, regeneration and tissue homeostasis research. Because of their unique stem cell system, (lab) technical advantages and their phylogenetic position within the Metazoa, they are also ideal candidate model organisms for toxi...