UC San Diego

Mature blood and immune cells arise from hematopoietic stem cells. The cues that drive development of hematopoietic stem cells, or hematopoiesis, is not completely understood. Wnt signaling is an important regulator of hematopoiesis, however, the interactions between the Wnt ligand and its receptor, Frizzled is not well understood. Here, I develop an in vitro assay to visualize this interaction between Wnt and Frizzled that to help better understand the dynamics and specificity through which Wnt binds to Frizzled. This assay can also be used to visualize other molecules that regulate Wnt signaling.