Publications related to Understanding the Mechanobiology of Early Mammalian Development through Bioengineered Models

Inheritance of H3K9 methylation regulates genome architecture in Drosophila early embryos

Constitutive heterochromatin is essential for transcriptional silencing and genome integrity. The establishment of constitutive heterochromatin in early embryos and its role in early fruitfly development are unknown. Lysine 9 trimethylation of histone H3 ( ...

Springernature2024

Sperm-contributed centrioles segregate stochastically into blastomeres of 4-cell stage Caenorhabditis elegans embryos

Pierre Gönczy, Fernando Romero Balestra

Whereas both sperm and egg contribute nuclear genetic material to the zygote in metazoan organisms, the inheritance of other cellular constituents is unequal between the 2 gametes. Thus, 2 copies of the centriole are contributed solely by the sperm to the ...

GENETICS SOCIETY AMERICA2023

The nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio drives cellularization in the close animal relative Sphaeroforma arctica

Omaya Pierre Dudin, Marine Olivetta

The ratio of nuclear content to cytoplasmic volume (N/C ratio) is a key regulator driving the maternal-to -zy-gotic transition in most animal embryos. Altering this ratio often impacts zygotic genome activation and de-regulates the timing and outcome of em ...

CELL PRESS2023

Species-specific regulation of XIST by the JPX/FTX orthologs

Olga Marie Louise Rosspopoff

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is an essential process, yet it initiates with remarkable diversity in various mammalian species. XIST, the main trigger of XCI, is controlled in the mouse by an interplay of lncRNA genes (LRGs), some of which evolved concom ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2023

Targeted search for scaling genes reveals matrix metalloproteinase 3 as a scaler of the dorsal-ventral pattern in Xenopus laevis embryos

Daria Korotkova

How embryos scale patterning according to size is still not fully understood. Through in silico screening and analysis of reaction-diffusion systems that could be responsible for scaling, we predicted the existence of genes whose expression is sensitive to ...

Cell Press - Elsevier2022

NMR spectroscopy of a single mammalian early stage embryo

Jürgen Brugger, Giovanni Boero, Marco Grisi, Gaurasundar Marc Conley, Kyle Joel Rodriguez

The resolving power, chemical sensitivity and non-invasive nature of NMR have made it an established technique for in vivo studies of large organisms both for research and clinical applications. NMR would clearly be beneficial for analysis of entities at t ...

Academic Press Inc - Elsevier Science2022

In vitro endoderm emergence and self-organisation in the absence of extraembryonic tissues and embryonic architecture

Stefano Davide Vianello

In humans, mice, and other mammals key internal organs such as the gut, the lungs, the pancreas, and the liver all derive from the same embryonic tissue: the endoderm. The development of all of these structures thus depends on a same set of early cells, an ...

EPFL2022

A computational modeling approach to study the neuromechanics of terrestrial locomotion

Shravan Tata Ramalingasetty

The main theme of my thesis will be to use neuro-muscular modeling techniques to study locomotion of terrestrial mammals. Locomotion is the ability of animals to interact with the environment to propel themselves in space. It involves co-ordination and pre ...

EPFL2022

KRAB zinc finger protein-mediated control of transposon-embedded regulatory sequences from human germline to early embryos

Alexandra Iouranova

Transposable elements (TEs), also called jumping genes, are genetic elements capable of changing their position within the genome of their host. They make up large fractions of genomes, including 45% of human DNA content, according to current estimates. S ...

EPFL2021

Automated phenotyping of Caenorhabditis elegans embryos with a high-throughput-screening microfluidic platform

Martinus Gijs, Matteo Cornaglia, Raphaël Etienne Jean Trouillon, Hüseyin Baris Atakan, Tunç Alkanat

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been extensively used as a model multicellular organism to study the influence of osmotic stress conditions and the toxicity of chemical compounds on developmental and motility-associated phenotypes. However, the sev ...

2020