Rebekah M. Charney

The paper builds a genome-scale gene regulatory network for vertebrate mesendoderm development using multi-omic data integration and validates novel transcription factor interactions.

The paper identifies an intermediate region in blastula stage chick embryos that specifies towards the neural crest cell fate, independent of contact-mediated induction.

This study shows that varying WNT signal strength in human neural crest formation alters axial identity, with low WNT producing anterior and high WNT producing posterior neural crest cells.