MSCA and EMBO fellowships for researchers in Hiiragi group

The researchers will mainly be looking into two aspects of the early stages of development: cleavage and implantation. After the sperm meets the egg and fertilizes it, the embryo undergoes a process called cleavage which subdivides the fertilized egg into multiple cells. After the cleavage process the embryo needs to move to the uterus so that it can continue its growth. The embryo will make contact, attach, and adhere to the maternal uterus. This process is called implantation and it is a very critical point in pregnancy. Shim mentions: “Around this stage there are many miscarriages that happen, we don’t really know why. You just know that it is a precarious stage of pregnancy.” Both Shim’s and Rodriguez Munoz research will ultimately be beneficial to help prevent miscarriages and support maternal health.

Laura Rodriguez Munoz: More and more cells but no embryo growth

Rodriguez Munoz will use her EMBO fellowship to conduct research on mouse embryo growth. She is particularly interested in how the growth is controlled. During the early stages of development, embryos go through cleavage. Although the process generates more cells, the embryo size will remain constant because the cells decrease in size. At a certain stage the embryos will start growing, but the mechanism that stops the cells from becoming smaller and triggers the growth is unknown. Rodriguez Munoz will investigate the embryo’s growth through advanced microscopy, which enables her to image the embryos for a long period of time in order to find this trigger.

Rodriguez Munoz will use her MSCA fellowship to investigate the changes the embryo goes through during the implantation stage. Rodriguez Munoz says: “These changes are not only related to growth. There might be other changes involved, like those that coordinate the capacity of a cell to give rise to different cell types.”

Gawoon Shim: The interaction between embryo and maternal body

Shim will look into mechanical forces involved in the process of mouse embryo implantation with her MSCA fellowship. During implantation, the embryo makes contact with the maternal uterus wall and attaches to it.  Shim explains that because this close connection between uterus and embryo “implantation has a high potential of affecting the development of the embryo itself.” Shim wants to directly measure physical forces and investigate the signaling pathways involved in this process. Shim says: “I think it’s an interesting project, because a lot of embryo studies looked at the embryo as a solitary system out of the uterus. But this project will focus on what the embryo does once it makes contact with the maternal body and how mechanical forces affect the very interesting interaction.”