The reprogramming of somatic cells to a spontaneously contracting cardiomyocyte-like state using defined transcription factors has proven successful in mouse fibroblasts. However, this process has been less successful in human cells, thus limiting the potential clinical applicability of this technology in regenerative medicine. We hypothesized that this issue is due...
One of the fundamental questions in developmental biology is how a single cell gives rise to a complex organism. More specifically, how a totipotent egg divides into cells that become increasingly restricted in their potential. Development is a process of increasingly restricted cellular potential, and here I home in on...
Pattern formation of biological structures involves the arrangement of different types of cells in an ordered spatial configuration. Patterning is thought to involve the spatial organization of molecular pre-patterns that precede and drive subsequent cell differentiation and coinciding morphogenesis. These molecular prepatterns are often, although not exclusively, organized through Turing...
A variety of human diseases and pregnancy related disorders reflect endometrial dysfunction. However, rodent models do not share fundamental biological processes with the human endometrium, such as cyclic menstruation, and no existing human cell cultures recapitulate the cyclic interactions between endometrial stromal and epithelial compartments necessary for decidualization and implantation....
Proper spatiotemporal expression of genes is essential during development. One method of regulation of signaling-responsive genes is at the level of transcription. In this work, I present the adaptation of single molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization for use in Drosophila imaginal disc tissues in order to more precisely quantify transcript...