Ulrich Tepass

Campus

St. George (downtown)

CSB Appointment

Full

Research Areas

Animal Biology, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics / Genomics, Molecular Biology, Systems Biology

Education

Ph.D. University of Cologne 1990

Titles and Honors

Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Epithelial Polarity and Development;Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Primary Undergraduate Department

Cell & Systems Biology

Graduate Programs

Cell & Systems Biology
Developmental Biology

Research Description

Finding out how cells adopt specific shapes and organize themselves into tissues and organs in multicellular organisms is one of the most exciting questions in modern biology with profound implications for human health. Our work focuses on epithelial cells, the basic building blocks of all animals that are major components of many organs such as skin, gut, kidney or the retina. These cells form two-dimensional sheets that separate different compartments of the body. Cell polarity is a key feature of simple and more complex epithelial cells such as photoreceptor cells. We also investigate the mechanisms of adhesion between epithelial cells that binds cells into tissues. Both cell polarity and cell adhesion are areas of intense research in current cell biology. Some of the main questions that we pursue are: How do epithelial cells establish and maintain their polar organization, and how is epithelial polarity lost during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions? How do epithelial cells adhere to each other and move along each other without compromising epithelial tissue integrity? How do photoreceptor cells establish different, functionally and structurally distinct plasma membrane region? Defects in cell polarity and cell adhesion of epithelial cells cause many diseases. Our research currently explores genetic models for cancer and blindness. In fact, more than 80% of all human cancer cases are caused by the abnormal behaviour of epithelial cells. Blindness results often from death of the retina that is caused by defects in the polarity and adhesion of the epithelial cells of the retina.