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Developmental biology is a field that explores the mechanism by which an individual organism is developed from a single fertilized egg (embryo). The stage immediately after implantation in humans is the period marking the beginning of gastrulation, the process by which the three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm) are differentiated via dynamic morphological changes. This is the first event which generates a diversity of cells from a homogeneous pluripotent cell group, the epiblast. As such, this is an extremely fundamental period that can be regarded as the “origin of the individual”, as opposed to the “origin of life” initiated by fertilization. Nevertheless, due to some decisive obstacles, our knowledge remains limited to morphological findings from about 100 years ago. This means we do not know the precise mechanism of the origin of human development.
So far, I have studied the peri-implantation development of cynomolgus monkeys, who are the evolutionarily closest to humans among the organisms amenable to biological experiments. As a result, I have revealed many aspects unique to primates, including the developmental dynamics of the epiblast and the in vivo developmental counterpart of human/cynomolgus monkey ESCs/iPSCs.
As a scientist in the HAKUBI project, I will extend the previous research and elucidate the mechanisms of development during the gastrula stage of primates at the molecular level. In addition, I will also try to establish a new experimental foundation to finally overcome the hurdles to our knowledge in this area. It is my hope that these studies will help us deduce the mechanisms of the origin of human development.