Research Themes

Dynamics of gene regulatory molecules in living embryos

Little is known at present about the kinetic movement of transcription factors in intact organisms. We recently developed new imaging tools to study the mobility of gene regulatory proteins at both, the quantitative and single-cell level, in live mouse embryos. Using these tools, we have measured in the early embryo the main kinetic behaviours exhibited by the transcription factors that are essential to control the pluripotent state of cells. This led to the discovery that not all blastomeres exhibit the same transcription factor kinetics, and that distinct kinetic states are important to predict the establishment of the pluripotent and the extra-embryonic cell lineages of the embryo. These studies now help us understanding how identical cells adopt different fates during embryonic development and identify transcription factor kinetics as a new mechanism to establish cell-to-cell variability in vivo. We are currently trying to understand the main molecular mechanisms controlling the kinetics of transcription factors in vivo.

Cell dynamics of tissue formation

In addition to studying the movement of gene regulatory molecules, we also use quantitative live imaging tools to understand how single cells move and interact with each other to form some of the first tissue-like layers of the embryo. We can now visualise the main morphological changes and the migratory behaviour of single cells in live mouse embryos as they form some of the first muscles and main structures of the central nervous system. To better understand how tissues and organs first form in the embryo, and to better plan strategies to repair adult organs, we want to understand how single cells behave in different parts of the embryo and how individual genes control cell dynamics in vivo?