Sapna Chhabra

The paper investigates how temperature cycles affect medaka embryonic development, revealing temperature-insensitive spatial patterns that compensate for temperature-sensitive temporal oscillations.

The paper shows Nodal is a short-range morphogen in human gastruloids, spreading via a relay mechanism and regulated by Lefty.

The paper compares BMP-treated human embryonic stem cells to amnion cells in monkey embryos, finding they are more transcriptionally similar to amnion cells than trophectoderm cells.

The paper shows that pluripotent stem cells undergo a mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) before losing pluripotency, which is distinct from the gastrulation EMT and regulated by integrin-mediated cell-matrix interactions.

The paper shows BMP signaling initiates WNT, which initiates NODAL in human gastruloids, revealing dynamic signaling waves that mediate epiblast patterning without a signaling gradient.

This study shows that morphogen dynamics, not just concentration, control cell fate decisions in human embryonic stem cells during gastrulation.