Christiaen’s research aims to understand how tissue-specific regulatory programs and cell-cell communication coordinate cellular behavior in the context of animal development, regeneration, and evolution. His laboratory focuses on mesodermal lineages that produce both heart and head muscles, using the ascidian Ciona as model. His laboratory has contributed seminal findings in developmental and evolutionary biology, identifying key processes contributing to human congenital disorders. The Ciona model provides a unique opportunity to study the regulation of chordate development at single cell resolution, thanks to a highly deterministic (“hard-wired”) mode of embryogenesis. However, recent attempts to uncover the impact of varying temperatures in a changing world are beginning to reveal regulative mechanisms of thermal adaptation.
Food will be served from 12:00; the presentation starts at 12:15