Snooping on cells in worms and mini-organs

Throughout their lifetime, animals face a wide variety of biological chal- lenges. Starting out as single cells, their first challenge is to undergo devel- opment and become fully grown and functional adults. Remarkably, this incredibly complex process occurs in a highly reproducible manner despite the huge variability in environmental, genetic and molecular fluctuations they encounter during their journey through development. However, the challenges do not end here; once animals become adults, their tissues are constantly subject to damage, either by external sources such as disease, or due to intrinsic causes such as cellular aging. Thus, adult tissues are con- stantly renewing themselves, and must do so in a tightly controlled manner in order to maintain homeostasis. In this thesis, we explore how animals cope with a few of such challenges with the help of two model systems, C. elegans worms and stem cell-derived organoids.