BMC Seminar Tuesday, 3rd March at 12:10 room 201 in Læknagarður

Speaker: Dr Alexander Aulehla, Group Leader EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

Title: Self-organization of cellular genetic oscillators during mouse embryo development

Abstract: In our group, we are focusing on how dynamic, oscillatory signals are employed during embryonic development to encode temporal, but also spatial information. In mouse embryos, several signaling pathways oscillate in their activity (period ~2hours) during mesoderm patterning and these oscillations are linked to the formation of pre-vertebrae, or somites. Most strikingly, oscillations occur phase-shifted between neighbouring cells, producing spatio-temporal wave patterns that traverse the embryo.

In this presentation, I will discuss our approach combining real-time imaging quantifications of oscillatory activities and novel in vitro assays, which enabled us to reveal the potential of genetic oscillators to self-organize and generate coherent spatio-temporal wave patterns from a randomized starting condition. I will present recent findings addressing underlying working principles.