Laura Gammill, PhD

Once an egg is fertilized, that single cell must divide repeatedly to become the myriad cell types that are properly positioned in a complex, multicellular organism. One way that cells arrange themselves in the developing embryo is by moving. The vertebrate neural crest is a striking example of developmental cell migration. Neural crest cells arise in the future brain and spinal cord, but become disconnected from their neighbors and migrate over long distances throughout the embryo to form surprisingly diverse derivatives, including the peripheral nervous system, outflow tract of the heart, and craniofacial skeleton. How do neural crest cells become different from their neighbors and migrate? How do they know where to go? The Gammill lab uses chick and mouse embryos to elucidate molecular mechanisms regulating neural crest cell formation, migration, and guidance. We combine embryological (explants, primary neural crest cell cultures) and molecular manipulations (electroporation of gain and loss of function reagents) of chick embryonic development with genomic analysis (ChIPseq and RNAseq) and proteomics (arrays, metabolic labelling, mass spectrometry), while relying on mouse mutants for robust genetic functional analyses. This combination of organisms and techniques allows us to integrate the advantages of each system toward a clearer understanding of early neural crest development.