No.203 Seminar ： “Exploring mechanisms of primate development just after implantation”
- Associate Professor Tomonori Nakamura (Hakubi 11th Batch, The Advanced Study of Human Biology (WPI - ASHBi))
- 2021/09/21 4:30pm
- Zoom (Closed)
- English
Summary
Developmental biology is a field that explores the mechanisms 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.
To overcome this issue, I have studied primate development using cynomolgus monkeys which are the evolutionally closest animals among the experimentally amenable organisms. In the seminar, I will provide an overview about non-human primates from the evolutional aspect, and the recent outcomes of the research which I have done using the cynomolgus monkeys.