Gastruloid Morphogenesis & Self-Organization
Using embryonic organoids to understand how gene-expression patterns, tissue mechanics and collective flows become coupled during morphogenesis.
Gastruloids are a reductionist system in which pluripotent stem cells can spontaneously establish polarity and organise into embryonic-like territories. They provide a controlled way to ask how much morphogenesis can emerge through self-organisation.
Symmetry breaking
How a nearly spherical aggregate establishes an axis and stabilises polarity.
Tissue flows
How tension heterogeneities can generate large-scale recirculation and advect fate patterns.
Fate × mechanics
How differentiation, adhesion, contractility and tissue organisation influence one another.
Toward organogenesis
How cardiac, vascular and endodermal tissues coordinate their emergence in later-stage gastruloids.