Guts & Gastrulation: The Lineages & Dynamics Driving the Emergence of Visceral Organs in Mammals

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Ph.D., member and chair, developmental biology program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; professor, Weill Cornell Medicine

Speaker bio(s)

The coupling of cell fate specification and cell behaviors drive the formation of tissues and organs during embryonic development. The process of gastrulation is a paradigm for the coordination of such events. In mammals, gastrulation transforms the early embryo comprising two tissue layers (pluripotent epiblast and visceral endoderm), into one comprising three tissue layers (epiblast, mesoderm and gut endoderm). During gastrulation, cells exit pluripotency, acquire distinct cell fates and undergo stereotypical morphogenetic cell behaviors, such as an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which occurs at, and defines, a structure called the primitive streak. Using various contemporary approaches, including imaging and transcriptomics, coupled with sophisticated genetics, the Hadjantonakis Lab is systematically investigating gastrulation in mammals with a focus on the endoderm, the precursor of the respiratory and digestive tracts and associated organs. The lab's long-term goal is to develop a mechanistic understanding of a series of stereotypical events leading to the emergence of the visceral organs. Dr. Hadjantonakis will highlight some open questions and overview some of the lab's recent work.

Developmental biologist Anna-Katerina (Kat) Hadjantonakis studies cell lineage commitment, tissue patterning, and morphogenesis in mammalian embryos and in vitro stem cell models. The overarching goal of her work is to understand how single cells reproducibly build complex tissues; from molecular circuits to cellular states and behaviors, to tissue-level architecture. She received a BSc in Biochemistry in 1990, and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics in 1995, from Imperial College London. From 1996 to 2003 she undertook postdoctoral work, first at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, in Toronto, and thereafter at Columbia University. She established her independent research group in the developmental biology program at the Sloan Kettering Institute in 2004 and was appointed its chair in 2019.

Open to

Public

Host

Ali Brivanlou

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Justin Sloboda

Phone

(212) 327-7785

Sponsor

Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785
jsloboda@rockefeller.edu

Readings

https://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/index.php/2019/12/04/recommended-readings-anna-katerina-hadjantonakis-ph-d-friday-december-13-2019/