Embryonic cells and cancer cells share various cellular characteristics important for their functions. It has thus been proposed that similar mechanisms of regulation may be present in these otherwise disparate cell types. To explore how regulative embryonic cells are fundamentally different from cancerous cells, we here study the functions of both tumor suppressors and pluripotency regulators/oncogenes in the context of sea urchin embryonic development as well as of human cancer cell development. Specifically, we hypothesize that a fine balance of a tumor suppressor protein Retinoblastoma1 (Rb1) and a germline factor Vasa are important for proper cell proliferation and differentiation of the somatic cells during embryogenesis. We currently study how a titrated level of these two antagonistic factors provide the molecular landscape necessary for plastic but proper embryonic development and what other downstream regulators are involved in this process of plasticity regulation.

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