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One doesn’t simply cross up the chance to attend an ISSCR convention, particularly when mentioned convention is in Vienna, within the leadup to Christmas, and the venue is the Hofburg palace. I used to be actually fortunate, subsequently, to have the chance to attend the assembly, held in Vienna this month, from 4-6 December. The theme of the assembly was “Elucidating Ideas of Improvement with Stem Cells,” and boy, have been these ideas elucidated. With a collection of stem cells from varied organisms out there to developmental and stem cell biologists, analysis teams are actually growing and refining ever extra quite a few and complex methods to characterize points of embryonic improvement with them. Accordingly, throughout the three days of the assembly, we have been showered with quite a lot of talks overlaying each modality of -oid possible.

As instructed by the title of the assembly, a giant focus was using stem cell-based or -derived fashions (with varied -oid names, resembling gastruloid, chimeroid, organoid, blastoid, cardioid, axioloid…). These are more and more refined and are being manipulated and studied in quite a lot of methods, and it’s doable they can complement to a fantastic lengthen the requirement for actual embryos in analysis. I discover it fascinating that we are actually so aware of the varied signalling regimes which might be required throughout totally different phases and in numerous tissues in improvement that it’s doable to copy synthetically particular phases or tissues of improvement, ranging from pluripotent stem cells (and generally extraembryonic stem cells too) – for instance solely preimplantation or post-implantation improvement, or axial elongation, or coronary heart improvement, or neural tissues, or the intestine. One of many many advantages of those methods is, in fact, that these -oids will be reproducibly generated in nice numbers, giving researchers an abundance of fabric on which to hold out experiments.

The inaugural speak of the assembly was delivered by Denis Duboule, a superb speaker, whose lab’s intensive work on Hox genes is revealing growing element on the workings of the Hox cluster. Particularly, his lab has been utilizing “stembryos” that recapitulate Hox gene expression alongside the anterior-posterior (or rostro-caudal) axis of the embryo. His use of a rope with interspaced knots and clothespins to characterize Hox genes and the CTCF websites that make sure the sequential and appropriately-timed expression of genes alongside the cluster was a private spotlight. And it was nonetheless solely 9:30 on the Monday!

The assembly had a robust displaying of teams that work on ectodermal/neural tissue fashions. As somebody who shouldn’t be very aware of these cell varieties from my very own analysis, I used to be nonetheless impressed by how fascinating I discovered them. Amongst others, there have been talks by Paola Arlotta, Barbara Treutlein, Madeleine Lancaster, Thomas Vierbuchen, Anna Kicheva, Sharad Ramanathan, Elly Tanaka, Akanksha Jain, and Jürgen Knoblich. A subject which stood out for me was Joanna Wysocka’s speak on DNA-guided transcription issue cooperativity and its features in cranial neural crest cells (CNCCs). Briefly, her lab recognized a novel lengthy consensus DNA motif, dubbed the “Coordinator,” containing a homeobox and an E-box binding motif. The Coordinator is particularly sure by the bHLH transcription issue Twist1 and homeobox issue Alx4. These work together solely when sure to the Coordinator through a tiny section of a loop solely discovered on Twist1 and no different bHLH components, thus selling expression of a number of genes related to CNCC behaviour.

One other speak on a a lot much less widespread mannequin organism was by Ali Elagoz, a doctoral pupil who works on the embryonic improvement of octopus nervous methods, in a broader effort to establish the evolutionary mechanisms by which cephalopods (octopuses, nautiluses, cuttlefish, and squids) have succeeded in evolving the biggest nervous system of all invertebrates. For these not aware of octopus nervous methods, you is likely to be delighted to seek out out that solely about 1/3 of octopus neurons are literally discovered of their brains, which, by the way in which, are wrapped round their oesophagus. Fast reogranisation of the cephalopod genome and enlargement of their suite of protocadherin genes could have contributed to the improvements that permitted the cephalopod mind to dramatically develop in dimension.

That mentioned, followers of different germ layers weren’t upset, with talks on mesodermal and endodermal specification and derivatives by André Diaz from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (gastruloids), Sasha Mendjan (cardioids), Aryeh Warmflash (2D ESC patterning to check Wnt and Nodal/Activin signalling gradients), Cantas Alev (axial improvement), Katharina Sonnen (timing of somitogenesis), and Sarah Bowling (hematopoietic stem cells).

One other thematic arc highlighted throughout the assembly was the novel quantitative points that developmental and stem cell biology are being explored from, and which, till very not too long ago, have been nearly completely assessed from a qualitative standpoint. Ewa Paluch’s lab, as an example, is finding out how epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, a course of important in multicellular improvement, will be approached from the attitude of cell form. Her lab has developed a “morphospace evaluation” pipeline whereby cell form is segmented and lots of variables quantified, lastly present process dimensionality discount to create a 2D “grid” of doable cell form phenotypes. Cell shapes have been then quantified earlier than, throughout, and on the finish of EMT, with cells present process EMT having a a lot “noisier” cell form than epithelial cells, in different phrases exploring extra of the morphospace. This implies an occasion of noise-driven transitions, the place noise may very well assist to beat a barrier, on this case from an epithelial to a mesenchymal state.

Lastly, I might be remiss if I didn’t spotlight some strategies improvement talks that actually captivated me. Alexdander van Oudenaarden detailed a brand new methodology, developed by his postdoc Michael VanInsberghe, for profiling each single cells’ full complement of RNA (as single-cell RNA-seq already does), and their ribosome-bound RNA (like single-cell Ribo-seq) in a single experiment, with a view to elucidate gene regulation on the transcriptional vs translational degree. That is achievable by titrating MNase (micrococcal nuclease), an enzyme that may digest single-stranded nucleic acids, and that may perform each as an endonuclease and exonuclease in a concentration-dependent method. It’s superb how such a easy idea can yield such wealthy information on the single-cell degree!

I used to be additionally blown away by Kate McDole’s speak on imaging in developmental biology. Her unparalleled expertise in custom-building microscopes are a boon to developmental and stem cell biologists who wish to picture samples which might be quickly rising, present process morphogenesis and continuously altering optical properties. Her “event-driven microscopy” platform is designed to help customers in imaging their organisms or organoids in a means that accounts for modifications within the pattern which might be going to be occurring sooner or later, with out requiring the fixed direct supervision of the person.

There was a broad and fascinating array of posters on the assembly, and as at all times at a convention it was nice to have the chance to fulfill researchers in any respect phases of their profession, from many institutes and nations. As I discussed, the venue was spectacular, and because it was actually a room within the former imperial palace, it was fairly straightforward to develop into distracted by the quite a few chandeliers, marble columns, and the stuccoed ceiling. As a bonus, each morning what I assume was a navy band would parade previous one of many home windows, inadvertently serenading the primary speaker of the day with some drumming.

Total, the convention was a fantastic expertise. Nothing fairly beats the joy of listening to scientists discuss their work in particular person, particularly about outcomes which might be typically recent out of the oven. And it’s at all times inspiring to fulfill new scientists with totally different pursuits and approaches to conducting analysis – you by no means know the place a novel concept on your personal work could come from, and which approach or new discovering will type the premise for a brand new avenue of scientific exploration!

The publish “Right here’s taking a look at -oids, child”: assembly report – Vienna ISSCR symposium, December 2023 appeared first on the Node.

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