Mammalian development and disease
The blueprint for the animal body plan is laid down during the early gastrulation stage. The body plan emerges as cells differentiate according to their position in the embryo. What is the nature of the positional cues? How do cells interpret these cues to differentiate? These are fundamental questions in developmental biology. Our laboratory addresses these questions to understand mammalian development. We focus on the differentiation of the mesoderm germ layer along the head-tail body axis.
The mesoderm is one of the three primordial tissue layers of the early embryo, which differentiates progressively to give rise to a vast variety of cell types and tissues, such as heart muscle, blood, vasculature, skeletal muscle, bone, connective tissue, kidney tubules, gonads, etc. One of the earliest steps leading to these diverse cell types is the differential specification of the newly formed mesoderm into two subtypes along the head-tail axis. Surprisingly, we don’t yet fully understand the mechanism of this step, which is a key milestone in embryonic development. Our laboratory has made discoveries that provide the framework to elucidate the mechanism of early mesoderm development.
Developing stem cell technology requires knowledge of developmental biology. Organoids are stem cell-derived self-organizing organ-like 3D microtissues with applications in disease research and medicine. Methods to create organoids have been designed by recapitulating the developmental sequence of specific organs. In our laboratory, we translate the basic knowledge of early embryonic development that we generate into stem cell technology to design methods for heart organoids for disease research.
In essence, our laboratory's program is anchored in developmental biology. The avenues created by this enterprise allows us to tackle human disease.
Funding and Support
The mesoderm is one of the three primordial tissue layers of the early embryo, which differentiates progressively to give rise to a vast variety of cell types and tissues, such as heart muscle, blood, vasculature, skeletal muscle, bone, connective tissue, kidney tubules, gonads, etc. One of the earliest steps leading to these diverse cell types is the differential specification of the newly formed mesoderm into two subtypes along the head-tail axis. Surprisingly, we don’t yet fully understand the mechanism of this step, which is a key milestone in embryonic development. Our laboratory has made discoveries that provide the framework to elucidate the mechanism of early mesoderm development.
Developing stem cell technology requires knowledge of developmental biology. Organoids are stem cell-derived self-organizing organ-like 3D microtissues with applications in disease research and medicine. Methods to create organoids have been designed by recapitulating the developmental sequence of specific organs. In our laboratory, we translate the basic knowledge of early embryonic development that we generate into stem cell technology to design methods for heart organoids for disease research.
In essence, our laboratory's program is anchored in developmental biology. The avenues created by this enterprise allows us to tackle human disease.
Funding and Support
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