Optimising light-sheet microscopy to study cell behaviour during gastrulation in chick embryos

Gastrulation is an essential process during early embryonic development, where the core body plan is set up. This involves the transformation of a single-cell thick epithelial sheet, the epiblast into a three-layered embryo. This complex transformation requires the large-scale coordination of a few key cellular behaviours, cell division and differentiation, cell intercalation, ingression and migration, by mechano-chemical cell-cell signalling.
This project aims to study and quantify these key cellular behaviours at the scale of the embryo using advanced light-sheet fluorescence microscopy in combination with transgenic chick embryos, expressing fluorescent protein labelled membrane and cytoskeletal components. We develop and custom-optimise light sheet imaging hardware and software to capture high-resolution, real-time cellular dynamics with minimal phototoxicity and photodamage. Our research enables detailed analysis of actin-myosin cytoskeletal organisation and dynamics during cell division, intercalation and ingression driving tissue flows during gastrulation.
To analyse the role of cell-cell signalling and feedback in the control and coordination of cellular behaviours underlying gastrulation, we conduct mechano-chemical perturbation experiments modulating cell divisions, differentiation and actin-myosin activity, while measuring tissue flows and underlying cellular dynamics.
This research provides novel insights into how signalling networks control critical cell behaviours that drive large-scale tissue morphogenesis which has implications not only for developmental biology and congenital disorders related to early embryogenesis but also for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.