The ERC has awarded one of its prestigious Advanced Investigator grants to Alfonso Martinez Arias (/research-groups/martinez-arias).
The project, “the mammalian body plan blueprint, an in vitro approach’ aims to gain insights into the molecular and cellular basis underlying the emergence of the mammalian body plan using the gastruloid system, a novel and versatile Pluripotent Stem Cells based experimental system developed over the last few years by his group, for the study of mammalian development (/news/synthetic-embryos-from-stem-cells).
Specifically, the study will probe into the reciprocal interactions between GRNs and the mechanical signals generated by the self-organizing multicellular ensembles and how these interactions lead to the mammalian body plan. This is the second ERC award that Martinez Arias received; the first (2009) one allowed him to start the work with pluripotent stem cells that leads to the development of the gastruloids by studying the “Molecular origins and function of dynamic heterogeneities in mouse ES cells and pre-implantation embryos”.
Cambridge University: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-researchers-win-european-research-council-funding
ERC website: https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2018-advanced-grants-results