EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "Studying Developmental Perturbations With Mouse Embryo-Like Structures"
Event details
| Date | 15.09.2025 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Gianluca Amadei, Department of Biology, University of Padova (IT) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
Abstract:
Understanding how signaling pathways regulate the development of mammalian embryos is a very important, yet difficult, task. In fact, most of embryonic development is hidden in the maternal uterus and embryos do not readily lend themselves to ex utero culture and manipulations. Stem cell models, on the other hand, possess several features (modularity, scalability, amenability to genetic manipulation) that enable us to explore development in ways that are not readily achievable with natural embryos, either mouse or human. My current research is centred on the stem cell-based, embryo-like model system called ETiX-embryoids. These structures form by combining Embryonic stem cells (ES cells), Trophoblast stem cells (TS cells) and induced eXtraembryonic endoderm stem cells. Unlike other stem cell or organoid models, ETiX-embryoids develop in culture like post-implantation mouse embryos and over the course of eight days they undertake neurulation and organogenesis, forming a patterned neural tube, a brain, a beating heart-like structure, gut tube and tail. Furthermore, these structures develop inside yolk sac and amnion membranes, like natural mouse embryos, thus enabling in vitro modelling of embryonic and extraembryonic tissue crosstalk. Here, I show how ETiX-embryoids can be utilised as a proxy to model and study early mouse embryo post-implantation development by shedding light on an early role for TGF-β signalling.
Bio:
Gianluca Amadei has completed his PhD at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Freda Miller studying how RNA-binding proteins regulate the development of the early mouse embryonic brain. He then moved to the University of Cambridge in the UK where, as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, he developed stem cell-based models of mouse early post-implantation development. Dr. Amadei is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Padova, Italy, where he is using these models as a proxy of mouse embryos to understand how development unfolds under normal and abnormal conditions.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
Understanding how signaling pathways regulate the development of mammalian embryos is a very important, yet difficult, task. In fact, most of embryonic development is hidden in the maternal uterus and embryos do not readily lend themselves to ex utero culture and manipulations. Stem cell models, on the other hand, possess several features (modularity, scalability, amenability to genetic manipulation) that enable us to explore development in ways that are not readily achievable with natural embryos, either mouse or human. My current research is centred on the stem cell-based, embryo-like model system called ETiX-embryoids. These structures form by combining Embryonic stem cells (ES cells), Trophoblast stem cells (TS cells) and induced eXtraembryonic endoderm stem cells. Unlike other stem cell or organoid models, ETiX-embryoids develop in culture like post-implantation mouse embryos and over the course of eight days they undertake neurulation and organogenesis, forming a patterned neural tube, a brain, a beating heart-like structure, gut tube and tail. Furthermore, these structures develop inside yolk sac and amnion membranes, like natural mouse embryos, thus enabling in vitro modelling of embryonic and extraembryonic tissue crosstalk. Here, I show how ETiX-embryoids can be utilised as a proxy to model and study early mouse embryo post-implantation development by shedding light on an early role for TGF-β signalling.
Bio:
Gianluca Amadei has completed his PhD at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Freda Miller studying how RNA-binding proteins regulate the development of the early mouse embryonic brain. He then moved to the University of Cambridge in the UK where, as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, he developed stem cell-based models of mouse early post-implantation development. Dr. Amadei is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Padova, Italy, where he is using these models as a proxy of mouse embryos to understand how development unfolds under normal and abnormal conditions.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Giovanni D'Angelo, Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD