For mechanistic studies we developed an in vitro live imaging assay with isolated stem cells.

To explore the contribution of autonomous vs niche-driven cues, we set up a niche switching assay between healthy and dystrophic stem cells and muscle fibres.

(YFP-labelled dystrophic stem cell grafted to a healthy fibre here)

We developed an ex vivo live imaging assay with stem cells within their muscle fibre niche to recapitulate the in vivo phenotypes and allow for perturbation studies.

Using in vivo live imaging, we showed that dystrophic stem cells have impaired migration kinetics and precocious differentiation.