Venue: UCL Institute of Child Health, Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH
Organisers: Nick Greene (UCL), Cynthia Andoniadou (KCL), Andy Copp (UCL)
The Mammalian Genetics and Development Workshop is an annual meeting focusing on the development and genetics of mammals. The Meeting is based on the submitted abstracts, and include diverse topics ranging from mammalian development (not exclusively human or mouse) and identification of disease genes and developmental mechanisms, to human genetics and epigenetics. Other model systems (including Drosophila, zebrafish and chick) are also welcomed where these relate to general developmental questions and/or disease models.
The meeting will be similar format to the 29th Meeting in 2018, which had a fantastic set of short talks covering various aspects of developmental biology, mouse models of human disorders and genetics of human disease (abstracts from the 2017 and 2018 meetings are published at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016672317000076 and https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016672319000016).
The workshop is traditionally a venue for post-docs and PhD students to talk rather than laboratory heads and is an excellent training ground and a friendly, informal forum. In keeping with this objective, we offer TWO PRIZES of £150 to individual post-graduate/post-doctoral presenters. In addition, thanks to the generosity of Mammalian Genome (https://link.springer.com/journal/335) publishers, we will offer an additional PRIZE of £150.
The Deans laboratory at the University of Utah is recruiting motivated postdoctoral fellows to fill NIH-funded research positions investigating the role of Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling during Inner Ear development and cochlear innervation. We apply basic developmental biology, mouse genetics, and biochemical approaches to define mechanisms of sensory receptor differentiation and innervation using the mouse as a model system. Please consider these recent examples of our discoveries in this area:
“Frizzled3 and Frizzled6 Cooperate with Vangl2 to Direct Cochlear Innervation by type II Spiral Ganglion Neurons” Journal of Neuroscience (2019)
“A non-autonomous function of the core PCP protein VANGL2 directs peripheral axon turning in the developing cochlea” Development (2018)
The Deans lab is located in a highly dynamic research environment hosted by the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy. In addition, Utah provides unparalleled lifestyle and outdoor recreation opportunities for a superior work/life balance. Candidates should carry a PhD in the areas of developmental, cell or neuro biology.Salary will be commensurate with prior research experience and NIH guides.
PhD studentship to start in October 2020 with Grant Wheeler at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
The Neural Crest and Placodes are groups of cells found only in vertebrates, specifically in the embryo. They originate at the neural border between the ectoderm and neuroectoderm. Once specified the Neural Crest undergo an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and then migrate to various parts of the embryo where they differentiate into important issues such as parts of the heart, the peripheral nervous system, the cartilage of the face and pigment cells. Placodal cells differentiate into sensorial organs such as the eyes, ears and nose. The Neural Crest and Placodes are therefore of importance for normal development and errors in their development are the cause of many birth defects.
Understanding the regulatory elements, such as enhancers, required for specification of the Neural Crest and Placodes is important in order to understand how they are first specified and then induced during development. Understanding these processes will help in developing techniques to engineer specific cells and tissues that the neural crest and placodes give rise to and which could be used in stem cell and regenerative therapies. ATAC-seq is a method to identify ‘open’ regions in the chromatin landscape which can correspond to active enhancers and promoters. We have previously carried out ATAC-seq on Xenopus embryonic tissue induced to form Neural Crest and Neural Ectoderm to determine active enhancers and promoters. In this project the student will generate ATAC-seq data on material induced to form placodal tissue. They will use bioinfomatics to analyse the data and compare it to the neural crest data. Differential analysis will uncover specific neural crest and placodal enhancers. Potential enhancers will be tested and validated using transgenic and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies.
For more information about how to apply please visit
The Posfai Lab at Princeton University (www.Posfailab.org) is looking to recruit a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms of cell fate choice and emergent organization during early embryonic development, using the preimplantation mouse embryo as a model system. The project will combine genetic engineering and quantitative, high-resolution live imaging using light sheet microscopy to understand the finely coordinated spatiotemporal dynamics of developmental events on a molecular, cellular and whole embryo scale.
The postdoctoral candidate should have a strong interest in developmental biology and genetics. Experience in light sheet microscopy and/or computational image analysis is preferred, but not necessary. Motivation and excellence is valued more than previous field of study.
The candidate will benefit from an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment at Princeton and the vibrant and supportive atmosphere of a junior lab. Researchers at the rank of Postdoctoral Research Associate are ordinarily appointed for one year at a time. Appointments are reviewed annually to consider reappointment and salary level. The position is benefits-eligible.
To apply, email your CV and cover letter explaining your interests and motivation to Eszter Posfai (eposfai@princeton.edu) and arrange for three reference letters to be sent on your behalf.
A PhD position is available in the group “Cnidarian Neural Development” (Fabian Rentzsch) at the University of Bergen/Sars Centre in Bergen, Norway.The group uses the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis to study molecular, cellular and evolutionary aspects of nervous system development (e.g. Richards and Rentzsch, Development 2014, 2015;Busengdal and Rentzsch, Dev Biol 2017).
This PhD project addresses the development and function of sensory cells in Nematostella. Key experimental tools are CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing, shRNAs, transgenic reporter lines and confocal microscopy. For further information, please contact the group leader Fabian Rentzsch (fabian.rentzsch<at>uib.no) and visit the group website.
The group of Holger Knaut at NYU School of Medicine seeks highly motivated, detail orientated, and passionate Ph.D. or M.D. graduates with experience in cell biology, fluorescence microscopy or biophysics to explore projects related to the regulation of cellular behaviors during morphogenesis in the context of live animals using quantitative imaging, genetics and computational modeling.
The goal of our group is to decipher the physical, molecular and cellular principles underlying dynamic cell behaviors during morphogenesis. We hope that uncovering these principles will provide an understanding of how normal cell dynamics contributes to development and homeostasis and why perturbations cause defects and disease.
Current models our lab uses to understand dynamic cell behavior are the assembly of neurons into clusters (Lewellis S et al. Journal of Cell Biology. 2013), the tissue movement of sensory organs (Venkiteswaran G et al. Cell. 2013, Wang J et al. Developmental Cell. 2018, Colak-Champollion et al. 2019) and the formation of the coronary artery network in zebrafish (Nagelberg D et al. Current Biology. 2015). To interrogate these processes we use classical genetics, genome engineering, advanced fluorescence microscopy and computational modeling, often in collaboration with other laboratories.
Our group is located in the Skirball Institute of the NYU School of Medicine in midtown Manhattan (New York City). The Skirball Institute is a premier institution for biomedical research. The institute focuses boldly on basic research. It also provides excellent core facilities and a supportive environment for interactions between its labs and the clinical disciplines at NYU Langone Medical Center. With a strong awareness that most medical breakthroughs originate in basic research, the medical center has allocated considerable resources in developing a state-of-the-art, modern, interdisciplinary research unit right in the center of the medical school environment.
Candidates should have a recent MD, PhD or MD/PhD degree and a strong background in cell biology, fluorescent microscopy or biophysics. Although not essential, candidates with experience in the use of animal models are encouraged to apply. Please send a cover letter explaining relevant work experience and interests, a CV, and the contact information of three references to Holger Knaut at holger.knaut@med.nyu.edu.
This editorial was recently published in Development and written by our editors Benoit Bruneau, Haruhiko Koseki, Susan Strome, Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla. Check out the Special Issue’s full table of contents here.
The development of an organism is regulated by tightly coordinated changes in gene expression. From zygotic gene activation, through to lineage specification and organogenesis, and into postnatal physiology and disease, broad programs of gene activation and repression are deployed in a carefully orchestrated manner. Eventually, the deployment of such developmental programs results in the formation of hundreds of different cell types, all containing the same DNA. Based on this, Conrad Waddington proposed more than half a century ago that development is an example of his epigenetic landscape.
DNA-binding transcription factors (TFs) are the leading drivers of these dynamic and cell type-specific gene regulatory networks, but TFs must function within the topological and physical constraints presented by the dense packing of DNA in chromatin, and within the context of histone modifications, DNA methylation and other aspects of chromatin-mediated regulation. All of these aspects of gene regulation – from TF binding sites, to nucleosomes, to topologically associated domains – are emerging as interlocked layers of developmentally important gene regulation.
Representation of nucleosomes superimposed on an enhanced image of whole-mount mouse embryonic intestinal tissue (E18.5), illustrating the chromatin dynamics underlying small intestine development. See the article by Lei Chen, Michael Verzi and colleagues
In this Special Issue, we feature the myriad levels of chromatin regulation that impact developmental gene regulation. The Spotlights, Reviews and Research articles herein span topics covering TF interactions with chromatin, histone modifications, chromatin remodelers, DNA methylation, RNA-binding proteins and 3D organization of the genome. All of these levels of gene regulation have clear and broad roles in development, as exemplified by the variety of processes that are featured. These include limb patterning, cardiac differentiation, intestinal development, heart regeneration, zygotic genome activation, control of pluripotency, retrotransposon regulation, cell cycle regulation, dosage compensation, and maintenance of the body plan. Moreover, multiple experimental systems including Caenorhabditis elegans, zebrafish, mice, and human embryonic stem cells are featured, bringing into focus the broad importance of chromatin as an essential component of developmental control.
One Spotlight article features a summary of a discussion that was held at a recent workshop on ‘Chromatin-based regulation of development’ (https://www.biologists.com/workshops/april-2019/) organized by The Company of Biologists. The discussion centered on emerging evidence for the role of 3D genome organization and phase-separated condensates as potentially important regulators of gene expression. The discussion was lively, and the Spotlight captures the essence of the insights and controversies in the field. A second Spotlight highlights a new field of research termed ‘EvoChromo’ that considers the origin and evolution of chromatin, while several timely Reviews synthesize important and sometimes overlooked aspects of gene regulation in development. For example, how do chromatin remodelers find the right loci to act upon to achieve specificity? How do histone modifications participate in developmental disorders? What role does heterochromatin serve in controlling cell identity? What are the optimal means to visualize 3D genome organization?
With the emergence of exciting new technologies and paradigm-shifting insights, we now appreciate how chromatin and epigenetics are complex and important developmental regulators. This Special Issue highlights many of these exciting new aspects of developmental biology, and will hopefully inspire our readers to explore this field further. We would like to thank everyone – authors and reviewers – who contributed to this Special Issue and hope you will consider sending your next manuscript on this topic our way!
These movies from Hiroshi Kimura and colleagues’ Techniques and Resources article in the Special Issue are the latest addition to our YouTube channel
Postdoctoral Fellow positions (can join anytime between 2019 fall to 2020 spring) are available in Lee laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. These positions are not for stem cell experts, rather for who has expertise on non-stem cell fields are preferable.
Here are the focused research areas for this hiring for 3-4 Postdoctoral Fellows.
– General biochemistry
– Modeling neurodegeneration with organoids
– Optogenetics
The Lee lab has been establishing novel methodologies to specify human induced pluripotent cells (hiPSCs) into multiple lineages and to model human diseases, including induced neural crest (Kim et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2014), peripheral neurons (Oh et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2016; Oh et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2017), Schwann cells (Mukherjee-Clavin et al., Nation Biomedical Engineering, 2019) and skeletal muscle cells (Choi et al., Cell Reports, 2016; Choi et al., submitted; Sun et al., submitted) using multiple genetic reporter systems. We continue to study human developmental and degenerative disorders to unravel the underlying cellular/molecular mechanism toward realistic therapeutic approaches.
Compensation is following NIH guideline and JHU is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Applicants can send a CV (with three reference contact info) to the address listed below:
Gabsang Lee, DVM, PhD
Associate Professor, Institute for Cell Engineering, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
leelabjob@gmail.com
We are seeking to recruit two talented and highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Scientist to investigate the molecular regulation of lineage specification during the development of human preimplantation embryos. One position is for an experimental researcher and one position is for a bioinformatician.
These new posts are part of the exciting Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI) that aims to define how cell lineages form during human development and to improve our understanding of fertility, birth defects and regenerative medicine.
The successful applicants with work collaboratively with members of the Reik, Kelsey and Rugg-Gunn groups within the Epigenetics Programme of the Babraham Institute. The job holder will benefit from being part of the HDBI and will work closely with other members of the initiative.
Fixed term contacts of 3-4 years in the first instance, with the expectation of additional funding up to five years.
Full details: https://www.babraham.ac.uk/vacancies-training
Highly motivated postdoctoral candidates are invited to lead several new projects to address fundamental questions in protein and RNA homeostasis related to neurodegenerative diseases in the laboratory of Jiou Wang. Experimental approaches, including biochemistry, genetics, and cell biology, from invertebrate to mammalian systems are employed. New techniques applied in the lab include iPSC neurons, genome editing, single cell analysis, and metabolite studies. Candidates with a strong background in biochemical, molecular, and/or cellular biology are encouraged to apply.
The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions provide a stimulating and collaborative environment for biomedical research. Our lab is affiliated with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Neuroscience at the School of Medicine. The Baltimore/Washington D.C. area also offers rich professional and living opportunities.
Candidates should have a doctoral degree and strong research background. Please send a statement of research experience and career goals, a copy of Curriculum Vitae, and contact information of at least one reference to Dr. Jiou Wang at jiouw@jhmi.edu.
A complete listing of PubMed-accessible publications can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Jiou+Wang.
More information available at: https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/2251/jiou-wang.The Johns Hopkins University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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“Cnidarian Neural Development” (Fabian Rentzsch) at the University of Bergen/Sars Centre in Bergen, Norway.The group uses the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis to study molecular, cellular and evolutionary aspects of nervous system development (e.g. Richards and Rentzsch, Development 
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