• Home
• Program
• Registration ▼
  • Registration
  • My registration
• Abstract Submission ▼
  • Abstract Submission
  • New submission
• Access
• Accommodation

Click here for the full PDF program

Keynote lecture by Barbara Treutlein

ETH Zürich, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering

"Reconstructing development and regeneration using single-cell genomics"

In biology, there are many scenarios where cells transit from one cell state or identity to another. During development, stem cells make fate decisions and differentiate into various mature cell types within a complex organ. During regeneration, differentiated cells can acquire a stem cell state and re-differentiate along multiple lineages. Single-cell genomics methods have proven to be powerful tools to illuminate the intermediate states that occur during these cellular transitions. I will discuss our work using single-cell transcriptomics to reconstruct molecular paths during organ development and regeneration. First, I will present our work using single-cell transcriptomics to reconstruct human organoid development and to compare these systems with their primary counterparts. We are now manipulating these systems to study gene function during human development and disease. Second, I will discuss our work exploring regeneration of the axolotl forelimb, where we found that connective tissue cell types in the uninjured adult limb revert to multipotent progenitor states that re-pattern and execute genetic programs observed in the embryonic limb.

EMBO Young Investigator lecture by Jérôme Gros

Institut Pasteur Paris

"Mechanical Control of Gastrulation"

Tissue morphogenesis is driven by local cellular deformations, themselves powered by contractile actomyosin networks. Yet, how localized forces are transmitted across tissues to shape them at a mesoscopic scale is still unclear. Analyzing gastrulation in entire avian embryos, we show that it is driven by the graded contraction of a large-scale supracellular actomyosin ring at the margin between the embryonic and extraembryonic territories. The propagation of these forces is enabled by a fluid-like response of the epithelial embryonic disk, which depends on cell division. A simple model of fluid motion entrained by a tensile ring quantitatively captures the vortex-like 'polonaise' movements that accompany the formation of the primitive streak.  I will present data suggesting that  the distribution of mechanical  forces we have brought to light  might play a greater role than « just » driving tissue flows in particular in embryonic self-organization.