Critical points and transitions in embryo development
Adhesion-driven tissue rigidification triggers epithelial cell polarity”, is now on biorxiv!We investigate how the coupling of several control parameters used during a tissue phase transition impacts tissue organization at the morphological and molecular level. Congratulations to Laura and Cris!
This March, we went on an exciting joint lab retreat with the Hiiragi and the Salbreux group. In a villa on the Côte d’Azur, we presented our projects to each other, enjoyed amazing food and got collaborating!
Our PhD student Magdalena Schindler got the chance to attend a workshop on Early Embryonic Cell Divisions by the Company of Biologists; the perfect topic for her project. Together with other attendees, she summarised the highlights and outcomes of the meeting – check the summary article!
Our student Lena won an award for the best contribution during the recent Theory@EMBL retreat. Her talk presented her work on the effects of cell cleavage rounds on the tissue material state.
With the new predoc course, Diana just joined our group as a predoctoral fellow. Having recently graduated from Sorbonne University in neuroscience, she is excited to learn about physics in early developmental processes during her next career step with us!
Thanks to Camilla’s and Jun-Ru’s organisation, the group enjoyed a team-building experience of a brewery tour. We also played a role-playing game where we got to hunt for lost data on the way. Our reward was fish tube-holders for the whole team!
Nicoletta Petridou, Group Leader at EMBL Heidelberg, received an ERC Starting Grant for her innovative work on embryonic development.
Thanks to Karen, our group has a new lab logo!
Jun-Ru Lee joins the group as postdoctoral fellow. His work will aim to understand the function of the interstitial fluid between the cells, which is vital for embryo development yet very poorly characterised until now.
Curious to know where developmental biology research is headed? Nicoletta and 9 other scientists gave an outlook for their fields.