With Cellular Memory as its topic, the symposium will address how cells, particularly adult stem cells, retain their identity and function, while responding and changing appropriately throughout life. Exciting new advances made through technological revolutions in lineage and single-cell tracing have led to a better understanding of how rare stem cells, in their niches, cope with different life events, including inflammation, infection and aging. Questions to be raised at this symposium will include how stem cells enable tissue homeostasis and preserve function; how they renew and erase memory of environmental events within their niche; or in some cases, how and why they retain memory of past events.
