70 Years of Hamburger & Hamilton – a free online symposium

The chicken is well known for its importance for food production, a >£2.5 billion industry in the UK alone. Chicken eggs are increasingly used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce drugs and antibodies. Research into the neuroanatomy and behaviour of these animals revealed complex behavioural traits and intelligence – chicken can count! Yet it was “A series of normal stages in the development of the chick embryo”, published in 1951 by Viktor Hamburger and Howard Hamilton (Journal of Morphology 88: 49–92), that, whilst not the only staging system for chicken embryos, firmly established the chicken as a major model in cell and developmental biology.

The chicken model was instrumental for the discovery of neural crest cells as a major cell type for skull development and peripheral nervous system, the discovery of the segmented structure of the brainstem, the discovery of complex signalling pathways that control that control the formation of limbs, and the discovery of a periodic clock that sets the stage for the reiterated formation of vertebrae, to name just a few. These discoveries paved the way for a better understanding of evolution of vertebrates with jaws to bite. Yet the chicken model also led to technical breakthroughs including in vivo electroporation and other techniques as tools for genetic studies, inter-species recombination and transplantation of tissues (chicken tissues can form teeth!), the CAM-assay for tumour angiogenesis, and many others. Since birds are closely related to mammals, the chicken embryo is a recognised model for human development and diseases. Importantly, because an embryo develops in an easily accessible egg, the chicken embryo is also a model that complies with the ethical requirement to avoid animal experimentation.

70 years of the HH (Hamburger-Hamilton) staging system is a great opportunity to celebrate the history of the chicken model and how it shaped the careers of many researchers. We also should look into the future – which scientific question will the chicken model help us answer? In this free, half-day symposium our two speakers will share their stories of how decades of using the chicken model have shaped our understanding of embryonic development – including working with Victor Hamburger.

Speakers:

• Drew Noden, Cornell University
• Was a PhD student of Viktor Hamburger and became one of the most influential researchers in the development of the skull and face.

• Cheryll Tickle, University of Bath
• Was a postdoc of Lewis Wolpert and became one of the most influential researchers on limb development.

The symposium will be held online on 9 September 2021, 3-5 pm BST. The meeting is free, and registrations are now open on https://symposium_70years_hh_stages.eventbrite.com/.

Organised by Susanne Dietrich and Frank Schubert, University of Portsmouth, UK

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