CDB Seminar - Rashmi Priya, Crick Institute
Title: Building a functional heart – from a simple epithelium to 3D topological meshwork
CDB Seminar - Rashmi Priya, Crick Institute
28 Apr 2022, 13:00 – 14:00
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
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.
Further information
Ticketing
Open
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes
Related events
Faculty of Life Sciences online graduate open events
Find out more about our Master's and MRes life sciences courses.
UCL Sport and Exercise Medical Sciences BSc 1:1 sessions
Book a 10‑minute 1:1 with our Programme Director, Dr Flaminia Ronca.
From Data to Decisions: An Introduction to Machine Learning with R
This course introduces basic ideas of machine learning with a focus on the most popular machine learning algorithms for supervised and unsupervised learning.