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Department of Genetics

 
Shaping up : Two papers in 'Development' from the Martinez Arias Group
Members of the Martinez Arias Lab in the Department of Genetics have been able to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing that a critical mass of cells is needed for the cells to being self-organising into the correct structure for an embryo to form.


The research is published in two papers in 'Development':

Susanne C Van den Brink, Peter Baillie-Johnson, Tina Balayo, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Sonja Nowotschin, David A. Turner and Alfonso Martinez Arias : Symmetry breaking, germ layer specification and axial organisation in aggregates of mouse ES cells. Development; 4 Nov 2104.
Read this OPEN ACCESS paper at : http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/22/4231.abstract

David A. Turner, Penelope C. Hayward, Peter Baillie-Johnson, Pau Rue, Rebecca Broome, Fernando Faunes and Alfonso Martinez Arias :  Wnt/β-catenin and FGF signalling direct the specification and maintenance of a neuromesodermal axial progenitor in ensembles of mouse ES cells. Development; 4 Nov 2104.
Read this OPEN ACCESS paper at : http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/22/4243.abstract

More on the University of Cambridge news pages at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/shaping-up-researchers-reconstruct-early-stages-of-embryo-development

Alfonso shaping up 475

Image : Mouse Embryonic Stem cells bearing a reporter for Wmt signalling. The left picture shows a group of ES cells displaying Wnt signalling (red)  in adherent culture, the middle one is the same cells in an elongating ‘organoid” which we call a ‘gastruloid” -notice the localized expression of the reporter-; finally the picture on the right is an embryo bearing the Wnt reporter at a stage we reckon mimics that of the aggregates in the middle. Pictures  courtesy of David Turner, Peter Baillie Johnson and Christoph Budjan. 

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