1. Improved methods for isolation of intestinal stem cells. Student will use fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) followed by quantitative realtime RT-PCR to assess degree of enrichment of mRNAs for intestinal stem cell markers as compared with markers of differentiated lineages.
2. /In vitro/ culture of intestinal stem cells. Student will isolate intestinal stem cells by our standard methods and attempt to demonstrate that they can both self-renew and give rise to differentiated lineages in a matrix-based culture system.
3. /In vivo/ transplantation of intestinal stem cells. Student will be involved in the development of an /in vivo/ stemness assay in which putative intestinal stem cells are transplanted using denuded tracheas as a scaffold.
