max.yun(at)cimrbj.ac.cn
Humans exhibit rather limited capabilities for tissue repair and regeneration. In contrast, organisms with remarkable regenerative abilities can be found in nature. Among these, salamanders (such as newts and axolotls) are considered the champions of regeneration, being able to regrow an extraordinary range of complex structures including ocular tissues, tail, jaws, large sections of their heart, parts of their nervous system, and entire limbs throughout their life. Further, salamanders exhibit extreme lifespans and limited signs of age-related decay. As such, they constitute ideal systems in which to investigate fundamental principles of regeneration and ageing.
The Yun lab at CIMR aims leverages cross-species approaches and experimentally tractable salamander systems to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms of complex regeneration and ageing resilience, towards therapies to combat age-related disease and functional restoration.
2. Discovered intrinsic and extrinsic factors governing cell dedifferentiation (PNAS, 2013; Stem Cell Reports, 2014; Aging Cell, 2023) and positional identity (Nature Commun, 2022)
4. Uncovered basic mechanisms of double-strand break repair, critical for genome stability maintenance and senescence avoidance (Nature, 2009)
Brown T., Mishra K., Elewa A., Iarovenko S., Subramanian E., Joven A., Petzold A., Fromm B., Friedlander M., Susuki M., Hayashi T., Suzuki K., Toyoda A., Oliveira A.C., Osipova E., Hiller M., Leigh N.#, Yun M.H.#, Simon A.#. Chromosome-Scale Genome Assembly Reveals How Repeat Elements Shape Non-Coding RNA Landscapes Active During Newt Limb Regeneration. Cell Genomics, 2025, 5: 100761. DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2025.100761
Haluza Y., Zoller J., Walters H., Lachnit M., Hagahni A., Lu A., Low R., Park N., Brooke R., Yun M.H.#, Horvath S.#. Axolotl epigenetic clocks offer insights into the nature of negligible senescence. bioRxiv, 2024. DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.09.611397
Yu Q., Walters H.E., Pasquini G., Pal Singh S., Lachnit M., Oliveira C.R., León-Periñán D., Petzold A., Kesavan P., Subiran Adrados C., Garteizgogeascoa I., Knapp D., Wagner A., Bernardos A., Alfonso M., Nadar G., Graf A.M., Troyanovskiy K.E., Dahl A., Busskamp V., Martínez-Máñez R., Yun M.H.#. Cellular senescence promotes progenitor cell expansion during axolotl limb regeneration. Developmental Cell, 2023, 58: 2416–2427. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2023.09.009
Walters H.#, Troyanovskiy K., Graf A., Yun M.H.#. Senescent cells enhance newt limb regeneration by promoting muscle dedifferentiation. Aging Cell, 2023, 22: e13826. DOI: 10.1111/acel.13826
Oliveira C.R., Knapp D., Elewa A, Gonzalez Malagon S., Gates P.B., Petzhold A., Arce H., Cordoba R.C., Chara O., Tanaka E. M., Simon A., Yun M.H.#. Tig1 regulates proximo-distal identity during salamander limb regeneration. Nature Communications, 2022, 13: 1141. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28755-1
Woych J., Ortega Gurrola A., Deryckere A., Jaeger E., Gumnit E., Merello G., Gu J., Joven Araus A., Leigh N., Yun M.H., Simon A., Tosches M.A. Cell-type profiling in salamanders identifies innovations in vertebrate forebrain evolution. Science, 2022, 377: 1063. DOI: 10.1126/science.abp9186
Yun M.H.#, Davaapil H. & Brockes J.P. Recurrent turnover of senescent cells during regeneration of a complex structure. eLife, 2015, 4: e05505. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.05505
Yun M.H.#, Gates P.B. & Brockes J.P. Regulation of p53 is critical for vertebrate limb regeneration. PNAS, 2013, 110: 17392-7. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1310519110
Yun M.H. & Hiom K.J.#. CtIP-BRCA1 modulates the choice of DNA double-strand-break repair pathway throughout the cell cycle. Nature, 2009, 459: 460–463. DOI: 10.1038/nature07955
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