Meet Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, PhD

Meet Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, PhD, the Professor of Development and Stem Cells at the University of Cambridge and a Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Over the past 25 years, research from the Zernicka-Goetz lab has broken new ground in studies of human embryo post-implantation development in vitro, cell fate specification in mouse and human embryos, and the creation of 3D embryos by combining multiple stem cell types. The Zernicka-Goetz Lab aims to uncover the fundamental principles and molecular mechanisms that regulate cell identity, pluripotency, and embryo plasticity, size, shape, and self-organization. 

Don’t miss her President’s Guest Plenary Lecture titled Embryo Models from Stem Cells- the Principals of Self-Organization on Monday, October 21, 8:30 – 9:15 AM. Embryogenesis is a conserved and self-organized process. In the mammalian embryo, the potential for self-organization is manifested in its extraordinary developmental plasticity, allowing a correctly patterned embryo to arise despite experimental perturbation. The underlying mechanisms enabling such regulative development have long been a topic of study. Dr. Zernicka-Goetz will summarize our current understanding of the self-organizing principles behind the regulative nature of the early mouse and human embryo and will propose that geometrical constraints, feedback between mechanical and biochemical factors, and cellular heterogeneity are all required to ensure the developmental plasticity of mammalian embryo development.

Click here to learn more about this plenary lecture: https://asrm.confex.com/asrm/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Session/6092