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CDB Seminar - Rashmi Priya, Crick Institute

28 April 2022, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

photo of Dr Rashmi Priya

Title: Building a functional heart – from a simple epithelium to 3D topological meshwork

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Michael Wright – Cell and Developmental Biology

Host: Steve Wilson

Abstract: Heart is the first functional organ in a developing embryo. One critical step during vertebrate heart development is trabeculation, which is crucial for heart function. During trabeculation, the myocardial wall transforms from a single-layered epithelium into a complex topological structure consisting of two distinct cell fates – outer compact layer and inner trabecular layer cardiomyocytes (CMs). We have recently shown that local differences in the mechanical properties of CMs trigger this morphological symmetry breaking. CMs with higher mechanical tension delaminate stochastically to seed the trabecular layer and this spatial segregation is also sufficient to induce their differential fate. Eventually, these single trabecular cells grow into multicellular ridges, which remodel to form macroscopic topological trabecular meshwork thereby thickening the myocardial wall. How a developing heart acquires these crucial anatomical structures remains unknown. By taking a systems-level multiscale approach, my lab aims to resolve how a primitive myocardial wall transforms from a simple epithelium into a 3D intricate functional tissue. In this seminar, I will be discussing some of our previous and current findings explaining how morphological complexity is built up during cardiac trabeculation.

Suggested reference: Tension heterogeneity directs form and fate to pattern the myocardial wall Rashmi Priya, Srinivas Allanki, Alessandra Gentile, Shivani Mansingh, Veronica Uribe, Hans-Martin Maischein, Didier Y R Stainier PMID: 33208950 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2946-9

Zoom: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/96159721838?pwd=ZDBza0JjbDdhL08rWWp0ZkxYNmRCdz09

Meeting ID: 961 5972 1838

Passcode: 671444

About the Speaker

Rashmi Priya

at Crick Institute

Rashmi did her master's from India, where she worked on the replication mechanism of malaria parasites at JNU (New Delhi), and then moved to ACTREC (Mumbai) to work on cancer metastasis, supported by research fellowships from CRI-TMC, DBT and UGC, Govt. of India. In 2011, she secured international PhD fellowships to join Alpha Yap’s lab at the University of Queensland, Australia, to study cell biology of epithelial cadherin junctions. Her PhD research led to the identification of novel Rho GTPase regulators at epithelial cadherin junctions and discovery of a bistable signalling network that sustains Rho signalling and epithelial homeostasis. In 2016, she joined Didier Stainier’s lab at Max Planck HLR, Germany as a post-doctoral fellow, supported by fellowships from EMBO and the Humboldt foundation to study zebrafish heart development. There, she used her interdisciplinary background to provide novel insights into cardiac trabeculation – a less-understood morphogenetic event crucial for heart function. She was awarded a DFG start up grant to support her postdoctoral research. In 2021, Rashmi joined the Francis Crick institute as a group leader. Her lab combines developmental genetics, quantitative cell biology and biophysical tools to address how organs acquire their robust architecture and function during embryonic development.

More about Rashmi Priya