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).

Projects

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

Biography

Ana Catarina Rato
Student
catarina.rato@research.fchampalimaud.org

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

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

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

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

Inês Silva
Masters Student
ines.silva@research.fchampalimuad.org

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

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

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

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

Lab Administration

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

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

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