Credit: Bakkers group. Copyright: Hubrecht Institute. 7 August 2024 NWO M-Grant for Jeroen Bakkers Back to news Jeroen Bakkers, group leader at the Hubrecht Institute, has received an M-grant from The Dutch Research Council (NWO). This grant offers him and his group the opportunity to further investigate how the heart’s left-right asymmetry arises during zebrafish development. Not only can this shed light on severe congenital heart conditions in humans, it will also provide new fundamental knowledge on the development of asymmetrical structures in organisms in general. Left and right Many examples of left-right asymmetry can be found in nature: from the coiling of snail shells and the tendrils of climbing plants, to the human hands and the arrangement of our internal organs. The mechanisms underlying this asymmetry are poorly understood. The Bakkers group hopes to gain new knowledge on tissue asymmetry by focusing on the formation of the heart in zebrafish embryos. During zebrafish embryonic development, as well as that of other vertebrates, the initially symmetrical heart tube starts to loop, leading to a left-right asymmetry. The researchers will study the genes and mechanisms that direct this process. Exploring asymmetry The Bakkers group will build on previous research into left-right asymmetry, which demonstrated the presence of a left-right organ in vertebrate embryos. This organ is responsible for activating different genes on the left and right sides of the embryo, thus leading to asymmetric gene expression patterns. This ensures that organs are formed with the correct left-right orientation. Furthermore, components of the actin cytoskeleton of cells also seem to play a role. It is however unknown how these different mechanisms interact to form asymmetric organs, which is what Bakkers would like to explore further. This research can teach us more about heart development and increase our understanding of heart conditions in newborns, but will also provide new fundamental knowledge on asymmetry in nature, benefitting the fields of evolutionary and developmental biology. About the NWO M-grant NWO Open Competition Domain Science-M grants are intended for innovative, curiosity-driven, fundamental research. A total of 84 grant applications were evaluated in this grant round, of which 21 were awarded funding. Jeroen Bakkers is group leader at the Hubrecht Institute and professor of Molecular Cardiogenetics at the UMC Utrecht.
