Di Pan

 di.pan@mpinat.mpg.de

Tel. +49 551 201-26112

My journey in regenerative research began in 2013 with a bachelor's program in regenerative medicine. Since then, I have sought to uncover new insights into regenerative medicine by studying models across phylogenetically diverse animal lineages. In 2019, I joined the Adamska Lab at the Australian National University to pursue my master's and PhD, focusing on sponge regeneration. I established the first single-cell atlas of calcareous sponges and delineated the temporal dynamics of gene expression patterns associated with cellular behaviours during injury-induced regeneration. In 2024, I was awarded a one-year DAAD-funded visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, where I investigated stem cell fate and niche regulatory mechanisms using the mouse hair follicles.

I am also fascinated by planarians, a powerful regeneration model that serves as a comparative bridge between early-branching metazoans such as sponges and more derived mammals. In 2025, I joined the Rink Department, where my work centres on single-cell transcriptomics, integrating upstream wet-lab works with downstream bioinformatics analyses to dissect the determinants of species-specific regenerative capacity in planarians and to explore potential strategies to modulate it at cellular resolution.

Outside the lab, I am passionate about traveling globally to experience the natural world. You will often find me on road trips, hiking, skiing, snorkelling, and capturing moments with friendly wildlife.