Project 2: Interdisciplinary investigations of the mechanisms of collective cell movement during gastrulation in the chick embryo

Guided collective cell movement is an essential process during development and when misregulated results in congenital defects and disease. We investigate collective cell movement during the early stages of chick embryonic development. We investigate the signals and mechanisms of mesoderm cell migration as well as the collective cell flows in the epiblast of the embryo. We use a combination of advanced live embryo imaging techniques (Digital Light Sheet Microscopy, and Multi-Photon Confocal Microscopy) to characterise and measure the in-vivo cells behaviours and movements in transgenic GFP expressing embryos. We are indentifying and characterising the role of critical signalling molecules of the FGF and VEGF families of growthfactors and perform biophysical measurements to characterise the cell and tissue mechanics in the embryo. The experiments rely heavily on advanced imaging and image processing techniques as well as on large scale image data analysis and detailed computer modelling.