Hui‐Chun Lu

Molecular basis of competence for neural induction in the chick embryo

The paper identifies molecular differences in chick embryo regions that lack competence for neural induction, showing that BMP inhibition and ERK stimulation can restore competence in some areas but not others.

Consensus Pituitary Atlas, a scalable resource for annotation, novel marker discovery and analyses in pituitary gland research

The paper creates a large-scale Consensus Pituitary Atlas to improve reproducibility and enable marker discovery and analysis in pituitary research.

The organizer as a cooperative of signaling cells for neural induction

The paper uses single-cell and tissue transcriptomics to show the organizer is a diverse collection of signaling cell sub-populations, not a single homogeneous population.

Canonical Wnt signalling from the Area Opaca induces and maintains the Marginal Zone in pre-primitive-streak stage chick embryos

This study identifies canonical Wnt signaling from the area opaca as essential for inducing and maintaining the marginal zone in pre-primitive-streak chick embryos.

A gene regulatory network for neural induction

The paper constructs a gene regulatory network for neural induction using transcriptomics and epigenomics data, revealing 175 regulators and 5,614 interactions with temporal dynamics.

The embryonic node functions as an instructive stem cell niche

The paper shows that the posterior part of the vertebrate node acts as an instructive stem cell niche by converting non-node cells into stem-like cells through transplantation and single-cell RNA sequencing.

A 3D molecular atlas of the chick embryonic heart

The paper creates a 3D molecular atlas of the chick embryonic heart at HH12 by analyzing gene expression in 13 micro-dissected regions and validating findings with in situ hybridisation and imaging techniques.