Heart Morphogenesis Group
Heart defects affect 1 in 100 births. Studying how cells form the heart helps reveal causes and improve tissue engineering for treatment.
Our research aims to define the cellular and molecular mechanisms that guide cardiac progenitor specification and morphogenesis during early embryogenesis. Using the mouse model, we recently established a fate map showing that the progenitors of the heart’s four chambers, two atria and two ventricles, originate from spatially and temporally distinct regions of the primitive streak, the early embryonic structure that gives rise to mesodermal and endodermal tissues during gastrulation. Notably, ventricular progenitors are the first to emerge, followed by progenitors contributing to the atria and outflow tract. This reveals that heart development is modular, assembled from distinct progenitor populations specified at different times and locations in the embryo.
To explore how these early decisions are made, we have developed powerful live-imaging techniques using light-sheet microscopy, allowing us to watch how cells move and respond to signals in real time as the embryo forms. These imaging platforms are integrated with single-cell RNA sequencing and genetic barcoding, enabling us to reconstruct differentiation trajectories at single-cell resolution and compare them across wildtype and mutant contexts.
We’re especially interested in how the timing and position of cell ingression through the primitive streak affect their migration routes and the signals they encounter, ultimately shaping their fate as cardiac progenitors. By studying these events at single-cell resolution, we aim to uncover the rules that govern how cells organise into tissues and organs, and the principles underlying the formation of the heart’s anatomical structures.
Elise Burnett
PhD Student
elise.burnett.24@ucl.ac.uk
Shayma Abukar
BHF PhD Student
shayma.abukar.22@ucl.ac.uk
Miranda Xie
MRes Student
miranda.xie21@ucl.ac.uk
Heather Dercksen
Research Assistant (St Georges University),
h.dercksen@ucl.ac.uk
Kim Wang
Undergraduate Student (UCL, Biosciences),
kim.wang.23@ucl.ac.uk
Jamie Dean (UCL, Dept of Med Phys & Biomedical Eng)
James Briscoe (Crick Institute)
1. Abukar, S., Embacher, P.A., Ciccarelli, A., Varsani-Brown, S., North, I.G.W., Dean, J.A., Briscoe, J., and Ivanovitch, K. (2025). Early coordination of cell migration and cardiac fate determination during mammalian gastrulation. The EMBO Journal, 1-33-33.
2. Delas, M.J., Kalaitzis, C.M., Fawzi, T., Demuth, M., Zhang, I., Stuart, H.T., Costantini, E., Ivanovitch, K., Tanaka, E.M., and Briscoe, J. (2023). Developmental cell fate choice in neural tube progenitors employs two distinct cis-regulatory strategies. Dev Cell 58, 3-17 e18.
3. Ivanovitch, K., Soro-Barrio, P., Chakravarty, P., Jones, R.A., Bell, D.M., Mousavy Gharavy, S.N., Stamataki, D., Delile, J., Smith, J.C., and Briscoe, J. (2021). Ventricular, atrial, and outflow tract heart progenitors arise from spatially and molecularly distinct regions of the primitive streak. PLoS Biol 19, e3001200.
4. Metzis, V., Steinhauser, S., Pakanavicius, E., Gouti, M., Stamataki, D., Ivanovitch, K., Watson, T., Rayon, T., Mousavy Gharavy, S.N., Lovell-Badge, R., et al. (2018). Nervous System Regionalization Entails Axial Allocation before Neural Differentiation. Cell 175, 1105-1118 e1117.
5. Ivanovitch, K., Temino, S., and Torres, M. (2017). Live imaging of heart tube development in mouse reveals alternating phases of cardiac differentiation and morphogenesis. Elife 6.
6. Le Garrec, J.F., Dominguez, J.N., Desgrange, A., Ivanovitch, K.D., Raphael, E., Bangham, J.A., Torres, M., Coen, E., Mohun, T.J., and Meilhac, S.M. (2017). A predictive model of asymmetric morphogenesis from 3D reconstructions of mouse heart looping dynamics. Elife 6.
7. Diz-Munoz, A., Romanczuk, P., Yu, W., Bergert, M., Ivanovitch, K., Salbreux, G., Heisenberg, C.P., and Paluch, E.K. (2016). Steering cell migration by alternating blebs and actin-rich protrusions. BMC Biol 14, 74.
8. Ivanovitch, K., Cavodeassi, F., and Wilson, S.W. (2013). Precocious acquisition of neuroepithelial character in the eye field underlies the onset of eye morphogenesis. Dev Cell 27, 293-305.
9. Cavodeassi, F., Ivanovitch, K., and Wilson, S.W. (2013). Eph/Ephrin signalling maintains eye field segregation from adjacent neural plate territories during forebrain morphogenesis. Development 140, 4193-4202.
10. Tamori, Y., Bialucha, C.U., Tian, A.G., Kajita, M., Huang, Y.C., Norman, M., Harrison, N., Poulton, J., Ivanovitch, K., Disch, L., et al. (2010). Involvement of Lgl and Mahjong/VprBP in cell competition. PLoS Biol 8, e1000422.
11. Fichelson, P., Moch, C., Ivanovitch, K., Martin, C., Sidor, C.M., Lepesant, J.A., Bellaiche, Y., and Huynh, J.R. (2009). Live-imaging of single stem cells within their niche reveals that a U3snoRNP component segregates asymmetrically and is required for self-renewal in Drosophila. Nat Cell Biol 11, 685-693.
12. Picone, R., Ren, X., Ivanovitch, K.D., Clarke, J.D., McKendry, R.A., and Baum, B. (2010). A polarised population of dynamic microtubules mediates homeostatic length control in animal cells. PLoS Biol 8, e1000542.
Teaching:
Module (co-) lead for the BSc module “Birth Defects: From basic Research to Clinical Application” (ANAT0024). More information on the program here.
Senior Research Fellow
Contact Details:
Developmental Biology and Cancer Rearch and Teaching Department
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
30 Guilford Street
London WC1N 1EH
Highlighted Paper:
Abukar S, Embacher PA, Ciccarelli A, Varsani-Brown S, North IGW, Dean JA, Briscoe J, Ivanovitch K (2025) Early coordination of cell migration and cardiac fate determination during mammalian gastrulation. The EMBO Journal: 1-33-33
Our research in the news:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/13/heart-cells-mouse-embryo-science-research
Research supported by British Heart Foundation
