Title: Modelling morphogenesis in sea anemones, jelly fish and corals

Speaker: Jaap Kaandorp, Computational Science Lab (UvA)

Abstract:

Rather than being directed by a central control mechanism, embryogenesis can be viewed as an emergent behavior resulting from a complex system in which several sub-processes on very different temporal and spatial scales (ranging from nanometer and nanoseconds to cm and days) are connected into a multi-scale system. In our research we have been focusing on the embryogenesis of basal organisms like the non-calcifying sea anemone Nematostella vectensis and the hydrozoan Clytia hemisphaerica and the calcifying coral Acropora millepora.

We have developed methods for analysing spatio-temporal gene expression patterns, methods for spatio-temporal modelling and inferring gene regulatory networks from gene expression data (qPCR data and in–situ hybridizations) and a cell-based mechanical model of early embryogenesis. In the coral we have developed a model of calcification physiology controlling biomineralization. Currently we are investigating how the different levels of organization (gene regulation controlling embryogenesis, cell mechanics and biomineralization) can be coupled into a multi-scale model of embryogenesis.

This event will take place in room L1.08