The First Cambridge Morphogenesis Symposium

Professor Paola Oliveri
Group leader at University College London, London

The Oliveri group aims to decipher gene regulatory networks (GRN) in development and regeneration of living systems, using echinoderms as a model. Echinoderms consist of five big classes, each with distinct larval stages of which only the echinoids and ophiuroids form a larval skeleton. The formation of a larval skeleton has the best-described developmental GRN for the sea urchin, Strongyloncentrotus purpuratus. The Oliveri group performs comparative analysis between echinoderm classes to better understand the developmental evolution of animal body plans, which resulted in the vast diversity of animal morphologies seen on the planet today.
@oliverilab on Twitter

Dr Edwige Moyroud
Group leader at Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge

Plants produce complex and diverse forms by controlling cell behaviour with exquisite spatiotemporal resolution. The colourful patterns on the petals of flowering plants represent striking illustrations of their engineering skills. These patterns are often highly elaborated, combining chemical (pigments) and structural (cell shape and texture) features to generate neighbouring tissues with contrasting appearances. Petal patterns also fulfil important functions, ranging from protection against UV radiation and desiccation to communication with pollinators. However, the mechanisms that program cell behaviour in a coordinated fashion across the epidermis of developing petals are not well understood. Our group investigates the formation and evolution of petal patterns across a small group of Hibiscus species. Combining genetic and phylogenomic approaches with imaging, modelling and behavioural experiments in a novel model system helps us understand how plants can set-up boundaries within the petal epidermis and how evolutionary tinkering generates the diversity of patterns observed in nature.
@Edwige_M on Twitter

Dr Golnar Kolahgar
Group leader at PDN, Cambridge

The Kolahgar group focuses on discovering extracellular molecules that instruct cells to proliferate in the gut, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. The intestinal epithelium constantly regenerates from stem cells, which adjust their behaviour to the changing physiological conditions the gut is exposed to. The molecular mechanisms of gut maintenance and tissue differentiation largely resemble those used during development; for example, the same signalling pathways that control tissue growth during development control cell fate decisions in the adult or become misregulated in cancer. The Kolahgar group aims to identify the secreted and physical factors that regulate gut plasticity, and to investigate the crosstalk between the visceral mesoderm and the intestinal epithelium.
@golikolahgar on Twitter

Dr Adrien Hallou
Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the group of Professor Benjamin Simons at Gurdon Institute, Cambridge

Cell morphology, mechanical forces, and gene expression act together to orchestrate cell fate decisions and tissue morphogenesis during embryonic development. However, understanding quantitatively the complex interplay between these different determinants of embryogenesis still remains elusive. We present a first computational framework for the joint statistical analysis of transcriptomic and mechanical signals in a spatial transcriptomics context. Using E8.5 mouse embryo seqFISH data sets, we infer mechanical forces, using image-based variational force inference, and identify mechanical and gene expression signatures which are predictive of tissue compartment boundaries. We find that spatial boundaries defined on the basis of gene expression are correlated with mechanical profiles which justify their maintenance and formation. Using generalized structural equation modelling we then identify gene modules predictive of mechanical behaviors of cells in an unbiased manner.