Early mammalian embryos are composed of one pluripotent stem-cell type that will eventually form all specialized cell types of the body. A critical step in the developmental process occurs after about two weeks, at the onset of gastrulation, when these pluripotent stem-cells differentiate into one of the three germ layers, becoming more defined. During this major symmetry breaking event, top and bottom of the early embryo are distinguished from each other.
At the tissue level, this symmetry breaking is very robust, resulting in a well-defined fate, form and function of cells in the developing embryo. However, regulation at the molecular level is much more variable as gene expression is a fluctuating process because transcription can take place in bursts or pulses, which makes it hard to predict the production of mRNA and proteins. Therefore, one of the most enigmatic and timely questions in developmental biology is how a system composed of intrinsically unpredictable cells can show robust and deterministic fate decisions.
This project aims to discover how cells respond to the signaling cues of their environment. When these interactions are understood, developmental (mal)formations can also be understood better and therapeutic intervention strategies in regenerative medicine and cancer research can be designed.
