"Finally, we are very interested in understanding how Sp2 regulates a very important decision a stem cell has to make: whether to produce more of itself or to produce offspring that can become neurons or skin cells," Dr Ghashghaei added. "We hope to address those questions in our future research, because these cellular mechanisms have implications for cancer research, neurodevelopmental diseases and regenerative medicine."

NC State graduate students Guanxi Xiao, and Haifeng Yin, and Dr Simon Hippenmeyer, a collaborator with the Dr Ghashghaei lab from Austria's Institute of Science and Technology, contributed to the work. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Federation for Aging Research.