# Receptor kinase signal integration in stem cell maintenance and development.

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2022 · $382,214

## Abstract

Project Summary
 How cell to cell signaling networks control stem cell maintenance and development is a
fundamental question in biology. Cell to cell communication and stem cell maintenance are
critical for human development and both contribute to disease states when disrupted. The ability
to manipulate cell signaling pathways or utilize stem cells to treat human disease remain
outstanding goals. As such, understanding how cell to cell signaling networks function is critical
for diverse public health challenges. My lab uses the well-established and tractable model plant
system, Arabidopsis, to take a multi-level approach to dissect the receptor kinase pathways that
control development and stem cell proliferation. Arabidopsis offers many technical benefits which
make the dissection of such signaling networks feasible. In addition, stem cell niches and other
developing tissues can be monitored live in whole organisms and are easily accessible and
amenable to experimental manipulation in a manner not feasible for many models.
 The proposal will support a series of projects that collectively aim to understand the function of
peptide receptor kinase signaling in stem cell regulation and development. The projects will
identify downstream components in receptor signaling pathways, examine how these pathways
control cell division across diverse tissues, characterize different classes of proposed
transcriptional regulators in these pathways, identify the target genes these regulators control,
and examine how these pathways integrate with hormone and temperature signaling inputs. The
projects will compare diverse stem cell niches and developmental processes to gain insight into
how peptide signaling pathways shape divergent cellular behavior in different contexts. The
proposal will train scientists at the post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate levels. This work
will benefit from collaboration with expert groups, including a group that works on peptide
receptors which function in pathogen peptide detection during immune responses, thus allowing
us to compare receptor kinase signaling mechanisms across development and immunity.
Ultimately, the project aims to understand these pathways at a level that will allows us to engineer
novel synthetic pathway components which could be used to reprogram plant growth and even
be deployed in heterologous animal systems, potentially leading to future human therapeutic
applications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10406499
- **Project number:** 2R35GM119614-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Zachary Luke Nimchuk
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $382,214
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-08-04 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10406499

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10406499, Receptor kinase signal integration in stem cell maintenance and development. (2R35GM119614-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10406499. Licensed CC0.

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