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Descriptif
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The quantitative understanding of early mammalian development is essential to the progress of reproductive medicine. Yet, the physical and mechanical principles governing the morphogenesis of mammalian embryos remain largely unknown. Early mouse embryos self-organize by a succession of cell divisions, deformations and rearrangements4, leading ultimately to a stereotypical 3-dimensional structure called the blastocyst. Encapsulating a large fluid cavity, the blastocyst is composed of two major cell lineages, the inner-cell mass and the trophectoderm, which are segregated in inside & outside layers.
The aim of this internship is to investigate early mouse embryo self-organization from a theoretical perspective, with an emphasis on the relation between cell-scale mechanics and embryo-scale morphogenesis. According to the candidate’s interest, one these aspects may be considered: single embryonic cell rheology, the formation of the blastocyst cavity, the interplay between cell mechanics & fate specification, and the inference of forces inside the blastocyst from microscopy images. The work will consist in deriving reduced models to capture the physics of the process, and if time permits, will be followed by numerical simulations in 3D to obtain realistic quantitative predictions. Work will be performed in close collaboration with the experimental biology group of J-L. Maître at Institut Curie, expert in mouse embryology |
