Embryos, juveniles, adults, mating, senility, and stage-associated diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's): we are interested in the mechanisms of developmental processes through all lifecycle stages - from individual cells to whole organisms - and in biocomputation, as recent papers show:
Claudio Stern听and others from CDB, in collaboration with colleagues from the USA, have published a听听dedicated to the memory of Professor Ruth Bellairs (1926鈥�2021), who contributed so much to the study of somites and听chick embryos, and who nurtured the authors鈥� love of embryos.听听Their observations in this paper challenge some assumptions underlying existing models of transient somite formation - somites being the structures that give rise to muscles and the skeletal system.听听[Image: Schematic representation of a mid-sagittal fracture with posterior-PSM represented as 0% of its length and anterior-PSM as 100%.]听
The authors used Scanning Microscopy (SEM), immunocytochemistry (where proteins are detected using antibodies that target the ones of interest)听and confocal microscopy to听study the progression of cell shape change and polarization along the tail-to-head axis of the embryo. SEM revealed that pre-somitic mesoderm听(PSM)听epithelialization is a gradual process, which begins much earlier than previously thought, starting with the dorsal-most cells, then the medial ones, and then, simultaneously, the ventral and lateral cells, before a somite fully separates from the PSM. But the core (internal) cells of the PSM and somites never epithelialize.听 This paper, with first-named author being听Agnieszka听Piatkowska, also received the Journal of Anatomy鈥檚 Joint Runner-Up Best Paper Prize (2023). 听
Arantza Barrios听is co-author of a 听published in听Current Biology, in collaboration with her colleague,听Doug Portman (Rochester University) and others.
They identify what information about a potential mate听C. elegans听males detect and take into consideration when choosing to mate. They also identify some of the neurones in the male, which detect such information. They found that males are quite picky, and can discriminate between potential mates on the basis of sex, age, health and mating history!
Gerold Baier鈥檚 group听has had a听听published in听Brain Bulletin, proposing听a three-node motif reduced network听in order to holistically understand the seizure propagation behaviour of focal epilepsy.听 Highlights of the work include that:- 3-node modal configurations bear rich information flow evolution of focal seizures;
- focal seizure spreading can be largely categorized as four specific patterns; and
- the criticality is helpful to propose novel seizure control strategies.
Gerold was also a co-author of another听听with collaborators from Beijing University of Technology on听Exploring the dynamical transitions on an epileptic hippocampal network model and its modulation strategy based on transcranial magneto-acoustical stimulation.
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The Rihel Lab, with听Fran莽ois Kroll as first author, has听听their work, which听combines听rapid loss-of-function mutagenesis of Alzheimer鈥檚 risk genes and behavioural pharmacology in zebrafish to predict disrupted processes and candidate therapeutics.听
By exposing genes associated with disease, genomic studies provide hundreds of starting points that should lead to druggable processes. However, our ability to systematically translate these genomic findings into听biological pathways remains limited.听To allow researchers to generate pharmacological predictions from their own sleep/wake datasets, the authors built an听online app听(ZOLTAR) that can plot behavioural听fingerprints.听听
Chris Barnes'听group, with Alex Fedorec as first-named author, have just had a听听published in Nature Communications. In it, they demonstrate how one can engineer digital bio-computation using bacterial colonies and morphogen gradients. It's the last major project that Alex worked on while in Chris' group, and was a fantastic collaborative effort.听
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