This paper develops a Cre-responsive transgenic quail line for flexible genetic lineage tracing, enabling permanent labelling of embryonic cell populations through Cre-mediated recombination.

bioRxiv · Sep 23, 2026 · PreprintDevelopmental Biology

Quantitative live imaging reveals PRICKLE1 controls junctional neural tube morphogenesis independent of Planar Cell Polarity

Jian Xiong Wang, Yanina D. Álvarez, Siew Zhuan Tan, Samara N Ranie, Samantha J. Stehbens, Melanie D. White

The paper uses live imaging to show PRICKLE1 controls neural tube morphogenesis through actomyosin-driven processes independent of planar cell polarity.

Nature Communications · Apr 27, 2026Peer-reviewedDevelopmental Biology

Genomic mosaicism reveals developmental organization of trunk neural crest-derived ganglia

Keng Ioi Vong, Yanina D. Álvarez, Qingquan Zhang, Jiaming Weng, Geoffroy P. J. C. Noël, Scott T. Barton, Changuk Chung, Robyn Ann Howarth, Naomi Meave Ojeda, Fiza Jiwani, Sai Babu Patarlapalli, Fenyong Yao, Fugui Zhu, Chelsea Barrows, Arzoo Patel, , Joseph G. Gleeson

The paper uses genomic mosaicism to study clonal dynamics of trunk neural crest-derived ganglia, finding conserved developmental patterns across species.

Nature · Apr 1, 2026Peer-reviewedDevelopmental Biology

The Lifeact-EGFP Quail: A New Avian Model for Studying Actin Dynamics In Vivo

Yanina D. Álvarez, Marise van der Spuy, Jian Xiong Wang, Ivar Noordstra, Siew Zhuan Tan, Murron Carroll, Alpha S. Yap, Olivier Serralbo, Melanie D. White

The paper introduces a transgenic Lifeact-EGFP quail line for live imaging of actin dynamics during avian embryogenesis and demonstrates its utility in studying cellular protrusions and supracellular actin structures.

The Journal of Cell Biology · Jun 4, 2024Peer-reviewedDevelopmental Biology

Inferring cell diversity in single cell data using consortium-scale epigenetic data as a biological anchor for cell identity

Yuliangzi Sun, Woo Jun Shim, Sophie Shen, Enakshi Sinniah, Duy Pham, Zezhuo Su, Dalia Mizikovsky, Melanie D. White, Joshua W. K. Ho, Quan Hoang Nguyen, Mikael Bodén A, Nathan J. Palpant

The paper introduces TRIAGE-Cluster and TRIAGE-ParseR to define cell diversity in scRNA-seq data using epigenetic data as a biological anchor.

Nucleic Acids Research · May 1, 2023Peer-reviewedBioinformatics