This is a hybrid seminar held in Glandt Forum (Singh Center) and via Zoom. Check email for the zoom link or contact cd0318@seas.upenn.edu.

“Synthetic Embryology for Constructing Human Embryo and Organ Models”

Early human development remains mysterious and difficult to study.  Recent advances in developmental biology, stem cell biology, and bioengineering have contributed to a significant interest in constructing stem cell-based models of human embryo and organs (embryoids / organoids).  The controllability and reproducibility of these human development models, coupled with the ease of genetically modifying stem cell lines, the ability to manipulate culture conditions and the simplicity of live imaging, make them robust and attractive systems to disentangle cellular behaviors and signaling interactions that drive human development.  In this talk, I will describe our effort in using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to develop controllable models of the peri-implantation embryonic development and neural development.  The peri-implantation human embryoids recapitulate key early post-implantation developmental landmarks successively, including pro-amniotic cavity formation, amniotic ectoderm-epiblast patterning, primordial germ cell specification, and development of the primitive streak with controlled anteroposterior polarity.  I will further discuss an hPSC-based neuroectoderm patterning model to recapitulate the formation of the neural plate and another more recently developed, patterned neural tube model with fully defined anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes.  Specifically, the patterned neural tube model recapitulates neural patterning along two orthogonal axes in a three-dimensional tubular geometry, offering in vivo-like tissue architecture and spatiotemporal tissue patterning, promising for studying human neurodevelopment and diseases.