Developmental Biology

A view of how an animal embryo is specified to develop and differentiate into a wide spectrum of cell types, and how the spatial patterns and axes of embyros are determined. The course will focus on genetic and molecular approaches, but will also cover the comparative anatomy of developing embryos to the extent necessary to understand the conserved aspects of embryonic patterning. Special emphasis will be placed on organisms with particular advantages for the study of embryonic development: e.g., mouse, frog, zebrafish, and Drosophila. The first half of the course will cover cell fate restrictions, cloning animals using nuclear transfer, stem cell biology, formation of the embryonic axes in vertebrates and Drosophila, and patterning of the neural tube and mesodermal tissues. The second half of the course will focus on emerging ideas and findings in the field, with emphasis on analysis of original literature.