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Awards, Latest, News

Kate Storey – Waddington medal winner 2019

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The Waddington Medal is the only national award in Developmental Biology. It honours outstanding research performance as well as services to the subject community. The medal is awarded annually at the BSDB Spring Meeting, where the recipient presents the Waddington Medal Lecture. Here we introduce the 2019 winner Kate Storey who won the 2019 Waddington medal for her outstanding work in understanding the fundamental processes that control neural differentiation in vertebrate development.

Kate was first introduced to the core questions of developmental biology at the University of Sussex. She then started her research career as a graduate student in Cambridge where she already showed originality of thought and direction with an independent project on the neural development of the earthworm. This interest in understanding how a simple nervous system forms was pursued further supported with a Harkness fellowship in Berkeley, California, where she investigated leech development. On returning to UK, Kate switched to studying the development of the vertebrate nervous system where, over the years, she has made a string of exciting and important discoveries. This work has gained her international recognition in the field of developmental neurobiology and it is this, together with her many contributions to the developmental biology community, that has led to her being awarded the 2019 Waddington medal from the BSDB.

Kate Storey is now the head of the Division of Cell & Developmental Biology and Chair of Neural Development, in the School of Life Sciences, at the University of Dundee in Scotland. She investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating neural differentiation in chick and mouse embryos as well as in mouse and human embryonic stem cells. By combining the advantages of each of these experimental systems, Kate has been able to gain substantial insights into the fundamental and conserved processes that regulate vertebrate neurogenesis. Her work has pioneered innovative live imaging approaches for monitoring behaviour and signalling of individual cells within developing tissues. These approaches have led to discovery of a new form of cell sub-division, named apical abscission, as well as providing insights into cell signalling dynamics that underpin asymmetric cell division. Not only is this work an excellent example of what can be learnt from observing cell biology within its normal context in vivo, it also pointed to new mechanism by which signalling is regulated during differentiation. Understanding how the dynamics of neuronal specification and differentiation is controlled during early development is a continued theme in Kate’s work.

Her earlier work showed that an interplay between FGF, Wnt and Retinoic Acid signalling is a fundamental signalling switch regulating the onset of neural differentiation. More recent findings have now linked a component of this, FGF/ERK signalling, to molecular machinery directing chromatin accessibility at neural genes. A further essential aspect of this discovery is in the provision of a mechanism by which the timing of neural differentiation can be coordinated with the progressive generation of somites within the paraxial mesoderm. Such work emphasises the ways in which developmental biologists can learn from studying processes from the sub-cellular level, through to the tissue and whole embryo level. Her discoveries have led to a programme of work that highlights the very best of developmental biology and continues to be an inspiration for young researchers entering the field.

Kate is seen as a leader in the field and has been prominent in promoting developmental biology in the UK and beyond. In Scotland, as Head of the Cell and Developmental Division of the University of Dundee since 2010, she has supported developmental biologists at different times in their careers. She has co-organized many scientific meetings including the first chick community wide meeting in 2007, the 2006 BSDB Autumn meeting on signal transduction mechanisms in development and, significantly, an EMBO workshop on spinal cord development that brought the field together for the first time in Sitges (Spain) in 2014. She has organised the Joint meeting of British, Spanish and Portuguese Societies for Developmental Biology 2015; and this year she co-chaired the Academy of Medical Sciences first international meeting on Neural Development in Oxford. Kate has in addition played an important role in the development of the field over the past ten years as a director of The Company of Biologists in particular by initiating and overseeing a series of interdisciplinary workshops on cell and developmental biology.

Kate was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012 and awarded the MRC Suffrage Science Heirloom Award 2014. She was elected to EMBO membership in 2016 and to the Academy of Medical Sciences 2017. In addition to her scientific achievements, Kate is known for her contributions to promoting science to a wider audience world-wide through a unique collaborative project with her sister Helen, a fashion designer. In this project, key developmental processes served as inspiration for designing textiles and dresses to chronicle the emerging human embryo. The resulting exhibition “Primitive Streak” has been seen by over 3 million people. The exhibition was one of eight major achievements identified in The Wellcome Trust’s celebration of its first 75 years, being one of the best examples of The Trust’s contribution to science communication.

Selected papers:

Kasioulis I., Das, R.M., and Storey, K.G. (2017) Inter-dependent apical microtubule and actin dynamics orchestrate centrosome retention and neuronal delamination. eLife 2017;6:e26215.

This paper uncovers novel cytoskeletal architecture that characterises apical neuroepithelial cells. The study demonstrates how this is generated and shows that it is required for neuronal delamination.

Das, R.M. and Storey, K.G. (2014) Apical abscission alters cell polarity and dismantles the primary cilium during neurogenesis. Science 343, 200-204

This work identifies a new form of cell sub-division, apical abscission, which takes place as neurons are born and detach from the ventricular surface. This is mediated by downregulation of N-cadherin and actino-myosin contraction and involves loss of apical membrane and regulated dismantling of the primary cilium. Apical abscission may represent a new mechanism for regulating cell signaling during differentiation: loss of ciliary membrane possessing the hallmarks of active Shh signaling suggests that apical abscission curtails signaling through this pathway.

Patel, N.S., Rhinn, M., Semprich, C I., Halley, P.A., Dollé P., Bickmore, W.A., and Storey, K.G. (2013) FGF signalling regulates chromatin organisation during neural differentiation via mechanisms that can be uncoupled from transcription PLoS Genet. 2013, 9:e1003614

This paper shows that FGF signalling promotes chromatin compaction at neural genes in the mouse embryo and that this regulation of chromatin accessibility can be uncoupled from mechanisms that direct transcription.

Das, R.M. and Storey, K.G. (2012) Mitotic spindle orientation can direct cell fate and bias Notch activity in chick neural tube. EMBO Reports 13(5): 448-54

This paper shows that apico-basally-orientated cell-division generates an apical daughter that becomes a neuron and a basal daughter that elevates Notch activity and divides again in the chick neural tube. The work links asymmetric division to Notch signalling dynamics and identifies a new neuronal differentiation step in which apical cells commencing neuronal differentiation rapidly lose apical complex proteins.

Olivera-Martinez I, Harada H, Halley PA, Storey KG (2012) Loss of FGF-Dependent Mesoderm Identity and Rise of Endogenous Retinoid Signalling Determine Cessation of Body Axis Elongation. PLoS Biol 10(10): e1001415 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001415

This paper provides a mechanism for cessation of body axis elongation in the chick. It reveals a sudden and discrete loss of FGF-dependent mesoderm identity gene brachyury in the late tailbud and shows that this is due to breakdown of oppositional signalling between FGF and retinoid pathways.

Delfino-Machín, M., Lunn, J.S., Breitkreuz, D.N., Akai, J. and Storey, K.G. (2005) Specification and maintenance of the spinal cord stem zone. Development 132, 4273-83.

Characterizes the stem zone (now known as the Caudal Lateral Epiblast, CLE) of the chick embryo and shows that cells here express both neural and mesodermal genes. The work demonstrates the requirement (but not sufficiency) for FGF signalling for the induction and maintenance of stem zone (CLE) and the differential regulation of Hox genes in the elongating body axis.

Diez del Corral, R., Olivera-Martinez, I., Goriely, A., Gale, E., Maden, M., and Storey, K (2003) Opposing FGF and Retinoid pathways control ventral neural patterning, neuronal differentiation and segmentation during body axis extension. Neuron 40, 65-79.

This work describes the discovery of an oppositional signalling switch between FGF and retinoic acid that controls differentiation onset in the body axis. FGF represses differentiation, while retinoic acid attenuates Fgf8 in neuroepithelium and paraxial mesoderm, where it controls somite size, and is further required for neuronal differentiation and expression of key ventral patterning genes.

Acknowledgements: B.Steventon would like to thank Kate Storey for her contributions to this text, and Alfonso Martinez Arias and Cheryll Tickle for helpful information and thoughts taken from their nomination text.

Awards, Latest, News

David Munro – Beddington Medal Winner 2019

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The Beddington Medal is the BSDB’s major commendation to promising young biologists, awarded for the best PhD thesis in Developmental Biology defended in the year previous to the award. Rosa Beddington was one of the greatest talents and inspirational leaders in the field of developmental biology. Rosa made an enormous contribution to the field in general and to the BSDB in particular, so it seemed entirely appropriate that the Society should establish a lasting memorial to her. The design of the medal, mice on a stylised DNA helix, is from artwork by Rosa herself. We would like to congratulate the 2019 winner of the Beddington Medal, David Munro, and would like to take this opportunity to give a brief overview of his career and the PhD project that was awarded the Beddington medal.

 Jim Smith introduced the Beddington medal with heartfelt memories of Rosa Beddington and her time at the NIMR. Please read more of his thoughts here.

Some complicated selfies were taken as the medal was passed over before David went on to present the work that has deserved him this award. In the words of his PhD supervisor:

“The really impressive thing about David’s work is that he did not come to my lab to fit in with an existing line of research but created one of his own”.  Jamie Davies, University of Edinburgh.

David received his undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Stirling (2010-2014). With this, he achieved a first-class honours degree and the prize for the best overall performance throughout a physiology related degree (British Physiological Society Undergraduate Prize). His dissertation project investigated associations between ADRB2 mutations (an adrenaline receptor gene in humans) and athlete status/athletic ability measurements. Subsequently, he was awarded a University of Stirling Head of School Summer Bursary Award to remain in Stirling during the summer of 2014 and investigate the relationship between transcribed ultra-conserved regions of RNA (T-UCRs) and the development of diet-induced insulin resistance in humans (Summer 2014). He then moved to the University of Edinburgh for his MSc by Research in Biomedical Sciences (2014-2015). Again, he received a distinction and was awarded the Class Prize for best student. During this time, he studied the physiology of S-acylation the regulation of skeletal muscle energy expenditure by an obesity-associated phospholipase as part of two research placements.

David has been awarded the Beddington medal for his exceptional work performed during his 3-year MRC-funded PhD at the University of Edinburgh with Prof Jamie Davies and Dr Peter Hohenstein (2015-2018): The thesis is titled ‘Mechanisms of kidney vascularisation and the roles of macrophages in renal organogenesis’. During his PhD, he gave several oral and poster presentations at national and international conferences, supervised students (including a Gurdon Summer Studentship Awardee), established numerous international collaborations, was awarded travel grants (including a BSDB Conference Grant), and reviewed manuscripts for leading journals (including Cell Reports, Angiogenesis, and Scientific Reports). He is now a post-doctoral fellow at the UK Dementia Research Institute (University of Edinburgh; 2019- present), continuing research in macrophage biology under the supervision of Prof Josef Priller. His current focus in on brain macrophages (microglia) in development, neurodegeneration, and aging.

Thesis description

Kidneys are specialised organs that clean the blood, removing waste while retaining what is useful. This requires a complex vasculature, and its formation as a foetus develops is poorly understood. I started my PhD research by using advanced microscopy techniques to visualise how blood vessels form in three-dimensions in the mouse kidney. In doing so, I identified when and from where the first blood vessels enter the kidney, and how blood vessels pattern at the edge of the kidney throughout development.

Blood vessels can form through angiogenesis (branching of new vessels from pre-existing ones) and/or vasculogenesis (assembly of new vessels from the coalescence of endothelial precursor cells). It has long been thought that a combination of both processes occurs during kidney vascularisation; however, my thesis work indicates that this concept may not be correct. My data instead suggest that kidney vascularization relies on growth and remodelling of pre-existing vessels (angiogenesis) and does not depend on vasculogenesis at any point (Publications 1 and 5 in CV). When assessing the entire 3D vascular tree of the kidney, isolated endothelial cells were never observed at any developmental age. Instead, all vessels, including the newly forming ones, were connected to pre-existing vessels that could be traced to the major circulatory vessels.

I then focused on the blood vessels at the edge of the kidney, which I found to consistently and accurately pattern around a special collection of cells – the cap mesenchyme. The cap mesenchyme contains cells that eventually become the cleaning tubes of the kidney, the nephrons. This cell population undergoes rounds of splitting at the kidney’s periphery. As this happens, I demonstrated that blood vessels migrate through the newly opened regions between the separating cap mesenchymal populations (Publication 1 in CV). This occurs in cycles throughout development and is likely to be vital for the oxygenation of the kidney’s outer region, the site where important processes such as nephron formation take place.

I determined that a signalling molecule, semaphorin-3f, and its receptor, neuropilin-2, were expressed in a pattern consistent with them having roles in this cyclical patterning of blood vessels; however, using mouse models where the genes for these molecules were deleted, I established that they were not vital for this process (Publication 2 in CV).

I next shifted my research focus towards a specialised cell type known as the macrophage (macro = big; phage = eater) in the developing kidney (Publication 3 in CV). Macrophages are immune cells best known for clearing foreign and damaged cells. These cells have vital roles during animal development, but little is known about their specific functions during kidney development.

Macrophages arrived in the mouse kidney early during its development, where they were required to clear away misplaced cells to ‘set-the-stage’ for early kidney development (Publication 6 in CV, under review). Throughout later development, most macrophages wrapped around blood vessels and I demonstrated their ability to eat endothelial cells (which usually line the blood vessels) and red blood cells (which are carried within them) within the kidney. I also established that kidney macrophages produced many molecules linked to blood vessel development, and so I examined the consequences of macrophage-loss on blood vessel formation. Blood vessels normally form continuous networks in the kidney; however, when macrophages were depleted (by blocking a macrophage-survival signalling pathway), connections between renal blood vessels were reduced (Publication 6 in CV).

 Publications

  1. Munro DAD, Hohenstein P, Davies JA. 2017. Cycles of vascular plexus formation within the nephrogenic zone of the developing kidney. Scientific Reports. 7: 3273.
  2. Munro DAD, Hohenstein P, Coate TM, Davies JA. 2017. Refuting the hypothesis that semaphorin-3f/neuropilin-2 guide endothelial patterning around the cap mesenchyme in the developing kidney. Developmental Dynamics. 246:1047-1056.
  3. Munro DAD, Hughes J. 2017. The Origins and Functions of Tissue-Resident Macrophages in Kidney Development. Frontiers in Physiology. 8:837. (Review)
  4. Mills CG, Lawrence ML, Munro DAD, El-Hendawi M, Mullins JJ, Davies JA. 2017. Asymmetric BMP4 signalling improves the realism of kidney organoids. Scientific Reports. 7:14824.
  5. Munro DAD, Davies JA. 2018. Vascularizing the kidney in the embryo and organoid: questioning assumptions about renal vasculogenesis. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. (Perspectives article).
  6. Munro DAD, et al. Macrophages restrict the nephrogenic field and promote endothelial connections during kidney development. eLife 2019;8:e43271 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.43271

Awards, Latest, News

Mariya Dobreva – Dennis Summerbell Awardee 2018

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Following a generous donation, the BSDB has instituted the Dennis Summerbell Lecture, to be delivered at its annual Autumn Meeting by a junior researcher at either PhD or Post-doctoral level. The 2018 lecture awardee was Mariya Dobreva (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and Department of Human Genetics, KU Leuven, Belgium) with her submitted abstract “Amniotic ectoderm expansion in mouse occurs via distinct modes and depends on Smad5-mediated signalling”. Her award lecture was presented at the Autumn Meeting 2018: Embryonic-Extraembryonic Interactions – from genetics to environment, 10-13 September 2018 in Oxford, UK.

Mariya’s work so far

Upon receiving a 4-year VIB International PhD Program grant, Mariya joined the lab of An Zwijsen in Leuven, Belgium to study the origins of amniotic stem cells and to dissect the unique extraembryonic defects of the Smad5 knock-out mouse embryos. SMAD5 is a downstream effector of BMP signaling, a major pathway involved in many processes in development and cancer. Mariya was fascinated by how entangled the development of embryonic and extraembryonic tissues during early development is, and appreciated the importance of understanding better these neglected parts of the conceptus. She contributed to the finding that Smad5 mutant embryos develop an ectopic primitive streak-like/tumor-like structure in their amnion due to defective signaling (Periera et al., 2012, Development 139(18)), and identified amnion-specific set of marker genes for mouse and human (Dobreva et al., 2012, Stem Cells Int. 987185). The culmination of Mariya’s PhD and postdoc work at Zwijsen’s lab was her most recent paper entitled “Amniotic ectoderm expansion in mouse occurs via distinct modes and requires SMAD5-mediated signalling” (Dobreva et al., 2018, Development 145(15)). This work impressed the judges of the Denis Summberbell Lecture award as a thorough study that sheds light upon both the origin of amnion and the molecular dynamics of its development combining cutting-edge, classical, and original techniques.

After a career brake, Mariya received a 2-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship and in 2016 moved to the UK to join the lab of Arkhat Abzhanov at Imperial College London. Expanding her research interests towards evolutionary developmental biology, she currently studies the developmental mechanisms underlying the rapid evolution and adaptive radiation of Darwin’s finches from Galapagos islands.

Lecture abstract:

Upon gastrulation, the mammalian conceptus transforms rapidly from a simple bilayer into a multi-layered embryo enveloped by its extraembryonic membranes. The embryonic-extraembryonic junction is a hot spot for dynamic cell rearrangements that drive early morphogenesis. The innermost extraembryonic membrane, the amnion, develops at the embryonic-extraembryonic interphase and gradually encases the developing conceptus. Impaired amnion development causes major embryonic malformations, yet its origin remains ill-defined. Mouse embryos, deficient in the BMP signalling effector SMAD5, show aberrant amnion and ventral folding morphogenesis and delayed closure of the proamniotic canal. I developed a microdissection technique and sequenced the transcriptomes of individual Smad5 mutant amnions isolated before the first visible malformations appear (E7.0-E7.5). I revealed two sets of defective amnions: one with a primitive-streak mesoderm signature and another one with unexpected chorionic ectoderm signature. Tetraploid chimera and immunostaining assays indicated that, in both cases, a deficit in the expansion of amniotic ectoderm results in inclusion of non-amniotic, non-squamous tissues in the amniotic microenvironment. Interestingly, the inclusions can be either of embryonic or of extraembryonic origin. To explain the different types of Smad5 mutant defects and to clarify the origin of mouse amnion, we related our findings to existing clonal analysis of early mouse embryos performed by Kirstie A. Lawson (University of Edinburgh). She traced the fate of single cells labeled before amnion formation. Four clone types contribute to the amniotic ectoderm with distinct growth patterns. Two main clone types were identified, with progenitors in the extreme proximal-anterior epiblast. Their early descendants initiate and expand amniotic ectoderm posteriorly, following the progression of the developing amniochorionic fold. Surprisingly, descendants of cells remaining anteriorly, later expand the amniotic ectoderm from its anterior side. The progenitor regions of all types are close to BMP sources in extraembryonic ectoderm and visceral endoderm. We attribute the two Smad5 mutant defect types to impairment of progenitors of the two main cell populations in amniotic ectoderm, and to compromised cuboidal-to-squamous transition of the anterior amniotic ectoderm. In both cases, SMAD5 is critical for expanding the amniotic ectoderm rapidly into a stretchable squamous sheet to accommodate exocoelom expansion, axial growth and folding morphogenesis.

See article: Dobreva et al., 2018, Development 145(15).

News, Newsletters

The BSDB Archive now available at the John Innes Centre

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The BSDB Archive covers 70 years of our society’s history, providing deep insights into its early years, its long trail of scientific conferences, workshops and committee meetings; it includes an almost complete collection of the many newsletters that have been published since issue 1 came out in 1979. A year ago, many of the archive’s documents were made digitally available (see box below) and described in a dedicated blog post by Andreas Prokop (LINK). The sheer number of >30,000 downloads from this digital archive within less than a year (LINK), clearly illustrates the wider interest in these historical documents, which hopefully help also some of our younger members to understand how Developmental Biology as a discipline became established in the UK.

The BSDB will likely not go further with the archive’s digitisation, but has taken an important alternative step to make its contents available to those taking a serious interest. Thus, Sarah Wilmot at the Historical Collections of the John Innes Centre (collections.jic.ac.uk) has kindly agreed to host and curate the BSDB archive, and we are most grateful for her outstanding professional support that now makes the collection fully accessible for further investigation. As Carsten Timmermann wrote from his perspective as science historian: “Your archive is a little treasure trove and will enable us to understand the history of Developmental Biology in this country much better. I wish other societies would follow your example. If we had a whole set of similar archives at our disposal, this would help us to study the way the life sciences overall have developed, comparing and contrasting sub-disciplines and understanding trends. For example, one could look at conference programmes in different fields within the life sciences and study how molecular methods have transformed biology.” In this context it is of particular interest, that the BSDB Archive will be accessible side-by-side with the one of the Genetics Society, thus providing an even greater opportunity to perform studies into the UK’s science history.

Box 1. Current holdings of the BSDB archive

The Embryologists Club + SDB

Archive: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5899636 | SDB-1964| 1948-64(#2) | 1948-64(#1) | DOWNLOAD ALL

BSDB Newsletters

Archive: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5827359 | 2016+17(#37+38) | 2015(#36) | 2014(#35) | 2013(#34) | 2012(#33-2) | 2012(#33-1) | 2011(#32-2) | 2011(#32-1) | 2010(#31-2) | 2010(#31-1)| 2009(#30-2) | 2009(#30-1) | 2008(#29-2) | 2008(#29-1) | 2007(#28-2) | 2007(#28-1) | 2006(#27-2) | 2006(#27-1) | 2005(#26-2) | 2005(#26-1) | 2004(#25-2) | 2004(#25-1) | 2003(#24-2) | 2003(#24-1) | 2002(#23-2) | restart @ #23 | 2002-1(#45) | 2001-2(#44) | 2001-1(#43) | 2000-2(#42) | 2000-1(#41) | #40 missed out| 1999-2(#39) | 1999-1(#38) |1998(#37) | 1997-2(#36) | 1997-1(#35) | 1996-2(#34) | 1996-1(#33) | 1995-2(#32) | 1995-1(#31) | 1994-2(#30) | 1994-1(#29) | 1993-2(#28) | 1993-1(#27) | 1992-2(#26) | 1992-1(#25) | 1991-2(#24) | 1991-1(#23) | 1990-2(#22) | 1990-1(#21) | 1989-2(#20) | 1989-1(#19) | 1988-2(#18) | 1988-1(#17) | 1987-2(#16) | 1987-1(#15) | 1986-2(#14) | 1986-1(#13) | 1985-2(#12) | 1985-1(#11) | 1984-2(#10) | 1984-1(#9) | 1983(#8) | 1982-2(#7) | 1982-1(#6) | 1981-2(#5)| 1981-1(#4)| 1980-2(#3)| 1980-1(#2)| 1979(#1) | DOWNLOAD ALL

Meeting programs

Archive: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5899651 (* hard copies of abstracts available) | 2018-2 | 2018-1 | 2017-2 | 2017-1 | 2016-2| 2016-1 | 2015-2 | 2015-1 | 2014-3 | 2014-2 | 2014-1 | 2013-2 | 2013-1 | 2012-2 | 2012-1 | 2011-2 | 2011-1 | 2010-2 | 2010-1 | 2009 | 2008-2 | 2008-1 | 2007-2 | 2007-1 | 2006-1+2 | 2005-1+2 | 2004-1+2 | 2003-1+2 | 2002-1+2 | 2001-1+2 | 2000-1+2 | 1999-1+2 | 1998-1+2 | 1997-1+2 | 1996-1+2 | 1995-1+2 | 1994-2 | 1994-1 | 1993-2 | 1993-1 | 1992-1+2 | 1991-1+2 | 1990-1+2 | 1989-1+2 | 1988-1+2 | 1987(EDBO) | 1987-3* | 1987-2 | 1987-1* | 1986-2 | 1986-1 | 1985-2* | 1985-1* | 1984-2 | 1984-1 | 1983-2 | 1983-1 | 1982-2 | 1982-1 | 1981-2 | 1981-1 | 1980-2 | 1980-1 | 1979-2 | 1979-1 | 1979-84 | 1978(#38) | 1978(#37)* | 1977(SSF)| 1977(#36) | 1977(#35) | 1977(#34) | 1976(#33) | 1976(#32) | 1976(#31) | 1975(#30) | 1975(#29) | 1975(#28) | 1973/4(#25-27)| 1972(#24) | 1972(#23) | 1971(#22) | 1971(#21) | 1971(#20) | 1970(SEB+SDB) | 1970(#18) | 1970(#17) | 1969(#16) | 1969(#15) | 1969(#14) | 1968(#13) | 1968(SEB+SDB) | 1968(#11) | 1967(#10) | 1967(#9) | 1966(#8) | 1966(#7) | 1966(#6) | 1965(#5) | 1965(#4) | 1965(#3) | 1964(#2) | 1964(#1) | DOWNLOAD ALL

Hopefully, the “open source” nature of the BSDB Archive , be it in its digital form or as hard copy collection, will attract wider interest and inspire others to join in and help develop its full potential – be it biologists browsing around, or (hobby) historians making systematic scientific use of it. But if you do so, please be so kind to share any new insights, anecdotes that come to mind or any knowledge that complements the information currently available. Also, if you hold additional documents that might add to the collection, we have now means to archive it in appropriate ways. Just send a quick email to comms@bsdb.organd we will take appropriate action!

News

Autumn meeting report: Nora and Nestor catch you up with the 2018 meeting on Embryonic Extraembryonic interactions

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Hello there! This is Nora Braak and Nestor Saiz, we are based in Oxford and New York respectively and we study butterfly and mouse development. Last week we went to the BSDB Autumn meeting, which also happened to be the third workshop on Embryonic Extraembryonic Interactions. We enjoyed it so much that we wanted to share our thoughts with you [disclaimer: these thoughts don’t represent those of the BSDB, the organizers, nor, of course, our PIs’…]

– Hey Nora, do you know how many developmental biologists does it take to take over an Oxford University College…?

– Ha! Tell me… [eye rolls]

– Well, about a hundred apparently! Which is as many of us descended onto Corpus Christi College last week to chat about the most extra of all tissues: extraembryonic membranes…

– [Eye rolls, squared] ehhh… well, actually the Embryonic-Extraembryonic Interfaces ok…?? #bsdb2018EEI The third workshop on this piping hot topic already!

– Fine, fine… if you’re going to get all serious about it, do you want to tell us about some of the talks that you liked? It was a very exclusive meeting, I bet most readers did not get to go.

– It was a great meeting; it will be hard to pick highlights but it must be done. To start, it was the first extra-embryonic meeting where team Insect was properly represented and it was such a success we are thinking of getting t-shirts made for the next time #teamInsect. The meeting started off strong with a plenary talk from Liz Robertson. She gave us all a crash-course in early mouse development and all the essential genes in cell-lineage specification and TGFβ signaling. Their paper, still hot off the press shows how loss of both Smad2 and 3 alter the epigenetic landscape and activate extraembryonic gene expression in embryo-derived stem cells.

– After Liz’s keynote, I think Kristen Panfilio made it very clear to all of us mouse aficionados that #teamInsect was in the house. Turns out insects do have extraembryonic membranes, unlike what you might have heard from a certain famous fruit fly… She also showed some absolutely gorgeous movies of Tribolium‘s amnion and serosa breaking and retracting into the yolk to let the embryo develop further. You can see them and read more about their reporter and how the EE get themselves out of the beetle’s way in their paper.

– The rest of the Monday afternoon discussed how development meets bioinformatics; from Laura Banaszynski telling us about the function of the H3.3 histone variant to Sarah Teichmann, who wants to develop the ‘Google Maps Street View’ of the human body. The first day ended with a lovely drinks reception and a three-course sit down dinner in the beautiful hall of Corpus Christi, which made me wish I had dressed up a little. The dinner was followed for many by some more drinks in the Bear Inn, one of the oldest pubs in Oxford.

– Ah, the Bear Inn and its low ceilings… Shout out to Miguel Manzanares too (#teamMammal) talking about genome structure in the early mouse embryo and Federica Bertocchini, who is studying chameleon development, which is awesome because… chameleons?? Come on… Did you know chameleons take 200 days from laying to hatching? Did I say chameleon yet?

 

– Tuesday was mouse day (#mousetastic). In the morning Ayaka Yanagida and I got the honor to present after two of my favorite embryologists, Jenny Nichols and Claire Chazaud! Jenny discussed their latest look at the Pou5f1 (aka Oct4) mutant, which is very close to her heart, then Claire doubled down on the mutants showing what happens when you knock out both Nanog and Gata6 in early mouse embryos. All of my favorite transcription factors!

– Yes it was a great morning, but after this early embryo overdose I was glad to switch to the lightning round of 3 minute presentations from all 24 poster presenters. They really piqued everyone’s interest, the poster sessions were so well attended – and not only because of the pastries and beer provided!

– I agree, it is the first time I see this pitching of the posters at a conference and I thought it was a very neat idea – though it probably only works in small settings like this workshop. Brief presentations are hard, kudos to the organizers for giving everyone a chance to practice!

– In the afternoon we had great talks from Takashi Hiragii and Veronique Azuara. I personally really enjoyed Matthew Stower’s talk, who used light sheet microscopy to study visceral endoderm migration, the pictures and the data analysis were amazing! Again the day ended in a 3 course sit down dinner in the beautiful hall of Corpus Christi, this time I was more prepared and knew which bread roll belonged to me and which fork to use for which course.

– I still don’t know how Matthew managed to take some of us on a pub crawl after lunch and then go and deliver his talk. Matthew you’re a total star.

– What did you think about Wednesday? It was an intense day.

– Yeah, Wednesday was packed. It started with all non-mouse mammal models. Berenika Plusa and Ania Piliszek presented their work on preimplantation rabbit development, whereas Stephen Frankenberg and James Turner engaged in their own marsupial cutey contest – for all of you dunnarts, possums and opossums out there: if you are interested in being the next top model organism, being cute will take you far! Jokes aside, theirs were some of my favorite talks. They had really nice data and ideas on the evolution of extraembryonic tissues and X-Chromosome inactivation in mammals that made me consider if I should switch model organisms.

 

 

– I also really liked the talks about the placenta by Rosalind John and Myriam Hemberger. Their talks about the importance of the placenta in embryonic development and the influence it can have on the maternal behaviour were both thought provoking and well presented – here’s one of their papers.

The day ended with talks from Diana Laird, on the transgenerational defects of environmental damage, and from Elizabeth Duncan. She looks at bee and aphid reproductive control as a way to understand how animals respond to their environment. Did you know that aphids will change their mode of reproduction and development depending on the season?? Yet the embryos ultimately look the same!

– Elizabeth Duncan’s talk was so interesting! I think even Queen B would have agreed… (#RoyalJelly)

 

 

– Right… oh, in the evening we were welcomed in the Natural History Museum of Oxford, with bottomless gin and delicious bowl and finger food. The beautiful surroundings gave everyone a chance to mingle, share their enthusiasm about dinosaurs and admire a live bee colony which were even more of interest after Elizabeth Duncan’s great talk

 

 

– Finally Thursday came around. It started with two great talks by #teamInsect, from both Maurijn van der Zee and yourself, Nora. You both seem to enjoy poking insects with infected needles… I guess it’s an effective way to trigger immune responses by the serosa – one of the many critical roles of the extraembryonic tissues in insects, as we had learned from Siegfried Roth’s talk on the evolution of Toll signaling! I personally loved Di Hu’s talk, from Shankar Srinivas’ lab, she had done some beautiful imaging of the early post-implantation mouse embryo and delivered like a pro. We also saw Zofia Madeja, Vasso Episkopou and Jaime Rivera, who is doing “dunkin’ transgenics!”. Delivering Cas9 to do CRISPR into mouse zygotes by bathing them in media with virus is definitely a slam dunk.

– Yes. The day was finished by two phenomenal speakers, Mariya Dobreva, who won the Dennis Summerball Award and presented her work on the role of Smad5 in the amniotic ectoderm, and Ali Brivanlou who wrapped up the meeting with some absolute eye candy on their work in in vitro models of human development.

– After that, awards were given to the three best poster presenters, Peter Baillie-Johnson, Matthias Teuscher and Berna Sozen. Well done them!

 

 

All in all, a wonderful little meeting – science, weather and setting all came together to make for a truly great week. Thanks so much to the organizers, Susana Chuva de Sousa Lopes, Kat Hadjantonakis, Kristen Panfilio, Tristan Rodriguez and Shankar Srinivas for putting it together and we’re looking forward to 2022!!