Embryology 2017 commences!

smiFISH fruit fly embryo from arthropod week taken with
fellow student Rebecca Adikes.

After a crazy first half to 2017 I'm extremely excited to find myself at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. Rewind back to January and I was in the closing 3 months of my PhD thesis write-up, applying for jobs left right and centre and preparing for a round the world trip to present my research on an international platform. At the end of February I was in Hawaii for the ASLO Aquatic Sciences meeting and in March I was in Brisbane where I paid a very quick visit to Bernie Degnan to talk shells. Back in Cambridge I polished and submitted my thesis and spent April-May working on the final manuscripts from my PhD research. Now it's June. I've started a postdoc in The Gillis Lab  and it's the first day of the world famous MBL Embryology Course (the MBL Embryology Course was established over 120 years ago, with six students and eight faculty becoming Nobel Laureates over the years).
   

1893 MBL Embryology course photo

Over the next six weeks we - the 24 students lucky enough to make-up the 2017 embryology cohort - will be following an intensive lab and lecture program which aims to instill in us a “broad and balanced view of modern issues in developmental biology”. It's going to be an extremely exciting time where we will get to discover how all sorts of different animals build themselves. Previous students have told me it's going to be life changing, that I will have never worked so hard in my life and that it's going to be the most rapid learning period of my career – I can't wait!

Watch this space for cool snapshots from the course and follow #embryo2017 for live updates.

 Some images from the course:

Images from the 2017 Embryology Course on the cover of Developmental Biology.

From left to right, top to bottom (including credits):

1) Crepidula, serotonin, acetylated alpha-tubulin, DAPI, Zeiss 780, by Berta Verd, Sergio Menchero, Surangi Perera;

2) C. elegans, distal tip cell and germ cells by Steven Plotkin;

3) L. variegatus, late gastrula, Id5, alpha tubulin, DAPI, Zeiss LSM780 100x by Victoria A. Sleight, Rebecca Ann Jones;

4) Hydra graft by Anna Czarkwiani;

5) D. melanogaster, stage 13, Hox (AbdB-red, AbdA-green, Ubx-blue, Scr-purple, DAPI), Nikon A1R, by Rebecca Adikes, Victoria A. Sleight, Tatiana Solovieva, Sergio Menchero;

6) Capitella, serotonin, acetylated alpha tubulin, DAPI (20X), Zeiss LSM780, (processed with IMARIS) by Rebecca Ann Jones;

7) Sea urchin pluteus, Antibody 295 (ciliary band), phalloidin, Zeiss LSM800 (20x), by Isabelle Vea;

8) P. tepidariorum, acetylated tubulin, HRP, DAPI, Zeiss LSM780, by Tessa Montague;

9) D. melanogaster eye disk, ELAV and HRP, Zeiss LSM 780, by Bruno C. Vellutini, Vanessa Knutson, Zuzka Vavrušová;

10) Squid, by Vanessa Knutson;

11) Mouse, Tuj1, MF20, PECAM, DAPI, Zeiss LSM800, by Bruno C. Vellutini;

12) Squid, alpha tubulin and DAPI by Tatiana Solovieva, Daniel E. Nuñez Leon;

13) P. hawaiensis, UV autofluorescence, transgenic DsRed (muscles), Zeiss LSM 780, by Nipam Patel;

14) E10.5 mouse, TUBB3, MF20, DAPI, Zeiss880 (10x), by Atray

Dixit, Sergio Menchero;

15) Hydra, phalloidin (yellow), DAPI (blue) and far red autofluorescence (red), Zeiss LSM800 (10x), by Rebecca Adikes;

16) Bat, brightfield, Zeiss AxioZoom, by Valerie Tornini, Berta Verd;

17) Crab, bright-field, by Brittany Grouge;

18) S.californicum, N-acetylated tubulin (purple), phalloidin (green), Zeiss LSM780 (40x), by Jan Studl, Amanda Marra;

19) C. intestinalis, Zeiss LSM800, by Anna Czarkwiani, Johannes Girstmair; Ye Old Oaken Bucket

(Final Score: Embryology 12, Physiology 8) by Rich Schneider, Dave Sherwood; Cover design: Valerie Tornini

Working with fellow student Johannes Girstmair on beautiful slipper snail (Crepidula fornicata) embryos, conducting a lineage tracing experiment with the help of very patient teaching assistant Dede Lyons