Humans are able to detect fitness decay in colleagues by looking at the graying of the hair or the wrinkles in their faces. Work from my laboratory in the last few years has shown that cells can also detect fitness levels of neighboring cells using a molecular code. Those “fitness fingerprints” (Rhiner et al., Dev.Cell, 2010; Merino et al., Curr. Biol., 2013) can be used to mediate cell selection by recognizing and eliminating less fit cells during ageing (Merino et al., Cell, 2015), regeneration (Moreno et al., Curr. Biol., 2015) and cancer (Levayer et al., Nature 2015).

Overview

We are generally interested in how cells of multicellular animals can detect the fitness of neighboring cells selecting the fittest cells. This is a fundamental process that has implications in several broader fields, for example:

1. Ageing

During ageing, elimination of unfit cells maintains tissue health and prolongs lifespan (Merino et al., Cell 2015).

2. Cancer

Tumor cells can behave as superfit cells and expand by killing and replacing neighbouring tissue, leading to tissue invasion and destruction (Levayer et al., Nature 2015).

3. Neurobiology

Neurons can also exchange fitness information leading to the culling of less fit neurons during development (Merino et al.Curr. Biol., 2013), brain regeneration (Moreno et al., Curr. Biol., 2015) and brain ageing (Merino et al., Cell 2015).

Eduardo Moreno, PhD
Principal Investigator
eduardo.moreno@research.fchampalimaud.org

Ana Cristina Queirós, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
ana.queiros@research.fchampalimaud.org

Andrea Spinazzola, MD
Student
andrea.spinazzola@research.fchampalimaud.org

Andrés Gutiérrez
Student
andres.gutierrez@research.fchampalimaud.org

António Palma
Visiting Fellow
antonio.palma@research.fchampalimaud.org

Catarina Brás Pereira, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
catarina.pereira@research.fchampalimaud.org

Catarina Costa
Masters Student
catarina.costa@neuro.fchampalimaud.org

Denise Camacho
External PhD Student
denise.camacho@research.fchampalimaud.org

Dina Coelho, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
dina.coelho@research.fchampalimaud.org

Esha Gogna, PhD
Visiting Scientist
esha.madan@research.fchampalimaud.org

Irene Argudo
Student
irene.argudo@research.fchampalimaud.org

Maria Bettencourt
PhD Student
maria.bettencourt@research.fchampalimaud.org

Maria Carolina Rodrigues
Student
carolina.rodrigues@research.fchampalimaud.org

Maria Leonor Peixoto
Visiting Fellow
leonor.peixoto@research.fchampalimaud.org

Mariana Reis
Student
mariana.reis@research.fchampalimaud.org

Mario Aguilar, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
mario.aguilar@research.fchampalimaud.org

Miguel Pinto
Student
miguel.pinto@research.fchampalimaud.org

Pedro Durão
Masters Student
pedro.durao@research.fchampalimaud.org

Rajan Gogna, PhD
Visiting Scientist
rajan.gogna@research.fchampalimaud.org

Lab Administration

Telma Carrilho
Lab Administrator
telma.carrilho@research.fchampalimaud.org

Technician

Joana Couceiro
Technician
joana.couceiro@research.fchampalimaud.org

Madan, Esha; Parker, Taylor; Pelham, Christopher; Palma, Antonio; Peixoto, Leonor; Nagane, Masaki; Chandaria, Aliya; Tomás, Ana; Canas-Marques, Rita; Henriques, Vanessa; Galzerano, Antonio; Cabral- Teixeira, Joaquim; Selvendiran, Karuppaiyah; Kuppusamy, P (2019) HIF-transcribed p53 chaperones HIF-1? NAR

Dina S. Coelho, Silvia Schwartz, Marisa M. Merino, Barbara Hauert, Barbara Topfel, Christa Rhiner and Eduardo Moreno (2018) Culling less fit neurons protects against amyloid-Beta-induced brain damage and cognitive and motor decline Cell Rep (doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.11.098)

Madan E, Gogna R, Moreno E (2018) Cell competition in development: information from flies and vertebrates Curr Op Cell Bio (doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2018.08.002)

Moreno E; Valon L; Levillayer F; Levayer R (2018) Competition for Space Induces Cell Elimination through Compaction-Driven ERK Downregulation Curr. Biol. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.007)

Germani F; Hain D; Sternlicht D; Moreno E; Basler K (2018) The Toll pathway inhibits tissue growth and regulates cell fitness in an infection-dependent manner eLife (doi:10.7554/eLife.39939)

Brás-Pereira C, Moreno E. (2017) Mechanical cell competition. Curr Op Cell Bio 51 , 15-21. (doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2017.10.003)

Levayer R, Dupont C, Moreno E. (2016) Tissue Crowding Induces Caspase-Dependent Competition for Space. Curr. Biol. S0960-9822 (16), 00059-2 (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.12.072)

Merino MM, Levayer R, Moreno E (2016) Survival of the Fittest: Essential Roles of Cell Competition in Development, Aging, and Cancer Trends Cell Biol. (doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2016.05.009)

Levayer, R., Hauert, B. and Moreno, E (2015) Cell mixing induced by myc is required for competitive tissue invasion and destruction Nature (doi:10.1038/nature14684)

Casas-Tinto, S., Lolo, F. and Moreno E (2015) Active JNK-dependent secretion of Drosophila Tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase by loser cells recruits haemocytes during cell competition Nat Commun (doi:10.1038/ncomms10022)

Gogna R, Shee K, Moreno E (2015) Cell Competition During Growth and Regeneration Annu. Rev. Genet. (doi:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055214)

Moreno E., Fernandez-Marrero, Y., Meyer, P., and Rhiner, C (2015) Brain regeneration in Drosophila involves comparison of neuronal fitness Curr. Biol. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.02.014)

Merino MM, Rhiner C, Lopez-Gay JM, Buechel D, Hauert B, Moreno E (2015) Elimination of unfit cells maintains tissue health and prolongs lifespan Cell (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.017)

Moreno, E. and Rhiner, C (2014) Darwin`s multicellularity: From neurotrophic theories and cell competition to fitness fingerprints Curr Op Cell Bio (doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2014.06.011)

Moreno, E (2014) Cancer: Darwinian tumour suppression Nature (doi:10.1038/nature13337)

Merino MM, Rhiner C, Portela M, Moreno E (2013) "Fitness fingerprints" mediate physiological culling of unwanted neurons in Drosophila Curr. Biol. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.053)

Moreno, E. (2012) Design and Construction of ‘‘Synthetic Species’’ PLoS ONE (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039054)

Rhiner C, López-Gay JM, Soldini D, Casas-Tinto S, Martín FA, Lombardía L, Moreno E (2010) Flower Forms an Extracellular Code that Reveals the Fitness of a Cell to its Neighbors in Drosophila Dev. Cell

Portela M, Casas-Tinto S, Rhiner C, López-Gay JM, Domínguez O, Soldini D, Moreno E (2010) Drosophila SPARC is a self-protective signal expressed by loser cells during cell competition Dev. Cell

Moreno, E. (2008) Is cell competition relevant to cancer? Nat. Rev. Cancer

Moreno E, Basler K (2004) dMyc transforms cells into super-competitors Cell (doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(04)00262-4)

Moreno E, Basler K, Morata G (2002) Cells compete for Decapentaplegic survival factor to prevent apoptosis in Drosophila wing development Nature