Precision and Reproducibility in Development
Event details
| Date | 02.06.2015 |
| Hour | 10:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Thomas Gregor, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (USA) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
Abstract:
Identical body plans across a species result from precise and reproducible embryonic development. However, the environment for developmental processes can be quite variable, and crucial signals inside the embryo are carried by so few molecules that we might expect development to be noisy. It is thus unclear how precision is achieved along the developmental path. Should we imagine that every step in the process is sloppy, so that the result is reproducible only because of error correction mechanisms? Or might each step be more reliable than previously intuited, squeezing as much information as possible out of a limited number of molecules? Using the fruit fly as a model system, our recent work shows that from the macroscopic features of the body plan precision can be traced, through several steps, back to the counting of essential signaling molecules placed in the egg by the mother. Absolute concentrations of molecules are reproducible to better than 10%, which translates to a spatial accuracy in a developing embryo sufficient to distinguish each cell from its neighbor, arguably the highest precision that the organism could achieve. These results argue for an evolutionary design principle by which developmental systems operate near an optimal level of precision.
Bio:
06/2009 to present
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
11/2006 to 05/2009
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
JSPS Fellow, Department of Basic Sciences
02/2005 to 10/2006
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology
January 2005
Ph.D. in Biophysics, Princeton University
Thesis Topic: "Biophysics Problems in Embryonic Development."
Advisor: Professor William Bialek
January 2001
M.S. in Chemistry, Princeton University
November 1998
Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
M.S. in Physics
Abstract:
Identical body plans across a species result from precise and reproducible embryonic development. However, the environment for developmental processes can be quite variable, and crucial signals inside the embryo are carried by so few molecules that we might expect development to be noisy. It is thus unclear how precision is achieved along the developmental path. Should we imagine that every step in the process is sloppy, so that the result is reproducible only because of error correction mechanisms? Or might each step be more reliable than previously intuited, squeezing as much information as possible out of a limited number of molecules? Using the fruit fly as a model system, our recent work shows that from the macroscopic features of the body plan precision can be traced, through several steps, back to the counting of essential signaling molecules placed in the egg by the mother. Absolute concentrations of molecules are reproducible to better than 10%, which translates to a spatial accuracy in a developing embryo sufficient to distinguish each cell from its neighbor, arguably the highest precision that the organism could achieve. These results argue for an evolutionary design principle by which developmental systems operate near an optimal level of precision.
Bio:
06/2009 to present
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
11/2006 to 05/2009
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
JSPS Fellow, Department of Basic Sciences
02/2005 to 10/2006
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA
HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology
January 2005
Ph.D. in Biophysics, Princeton University
Thesis Topic: "Biophysics Problems in Embryonic Development."
Advisor: Professor William Bialek
January 2001
M.S. in Chemistry, Princeton University
November 1998
Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
M.S. in Physics
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