Wnt signalling pathways are essential in embryonic development and have important functions in tissue regeneration and overall maintenance of tissue homeostasis throughout our life. Furthermore, dysregulation of Wnt signalling is associated with many human diseases, most prominently cancer. Understanding how these pathways function at the molecular level is therefore of great importance. Dissecting the mechanisms governing the different steps in this pathway has proven difficult largely due to pathway complexity and absence of suitable research tools/strategies able to reduce such complexity.

During my talk I will briefly touch on my past work which was focused on dissecting the basal state of the Wnt/b-catenin pathway and spend the remainder of my talk my lab’s approach in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of pathway activation and to share with you some exciting preliminary data.