Olinda Alegria-Prévot

This study investigates actin and myosin dynamics during epithelial remodeling in avian gastrulation, showing that junctional myosin contraction drives cell rearrangements and primitive streak formation.

The paper uses live imaging to show that avian hypoblast movement and patterning are consequences of NODAL signaling, not drivers of primitive streak induction.

The paper measures active forces and material properties in developing quail embryos, revealing elastic and viscous behavior under active regulation and the role of cell division in tissue fluidization.

The paper demonstrates an efficient CRISPR/Cas9 method for somatic knock-in of reporters in avian embryos, enabling dynamic monitoring of protein distribution and labeling of neural sub-populations.

The paper shows mechanical forces in avian embryos self-organize like a Turing model, guiding tissue flows and gene expression to form embryos, even under perturbations.