Plachta Group
Dr Nicolas Plachta is the second Group Leader appointed to the EMBL Australia Partner Laboratory Network (commenced in mid 2011).
Revealing the dynamic mechanisms that pattern a mammalian embryo is key
to understanding human biology and disease, yet few
experimental systems
permit to study the dynamic physical aspects of cells and
molecules in
living mammalian embryos.
The Plachta Group combines single-cell imaging and quantitative
methods to
discover how the dynamic behaviour of DNA-binding molecules
controls the
development of the first specialised cells in living mouse
embryos.
The Group has established new experimental assays to visualise
the movement
of transcription factors, which are key regulatory molecules
controlling
gene expression, in four dimensions (x, y, z and time). They
perform
experiments at the single cell level and as they occur in
real time in
intact embryos. This approach enables the probing of biochemical
events
typically studied in fixed specimens or in cell homogenates
often
lacking the spatiotemporal dynamics of in vivo systems.
The Plachta Group extends these studies by comparing pluripotent cells
in the
embryo to several stem cell lines cultured in vitro. The stem cell lines are derived
from the actual embryo (such as ES cells) orare
reprogrammed from
somatic cell lineages (iPS cells). In addition, the Group
has developed live
imaging tools to study the cellular mechanisms governing the
formation
of the first tissue-like structures in the embryo, with a
particular
focus on cell movements and formation of the central nervous
system.
More information on the Plachta Group can be found at:
www.armi.org.au/Research1/Research_Groups/Plachta_Group.aspx