3D-Embryo Map – Ultrastructural aspects of embryogenesis

Topic:	STEM impulses
Type of funding:	Individual funding programmes
Funded institution:	Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

The Prisma funding will enable Prof. Dr. Andreas Hejnol, Professor of Zoology, to establish a new 3D method for describing animal embryogenesis. Recordings of this will be shown at the Phyletic Museum, of which Prof. Hejnol is director.

Goals

The differentiation of cells during animal embryogenesis is a complex process. In order to understand this, the application of a wide variety of methods such as live imaging (live images of embryos) and sequencing of single cell transcriptomes is necessary. However, only with the application of electron microscopy can the complete embryogenesis be described and thus a so-called "embryo map" created. This comprehensive description of an embryogenesis provides the basis for the comparison of species and thus ultimately the reconstruction of the evolutionary changes in embryogenesis. The research project will integrate transmission electron microscopy into Professor Hejnol's research group. A display case in the Phyletic Museum is also planned, in which films of embryogenesis will be shown.