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SUMMARY:Gene regulatory complexity in chordate neural patterning - Sebasti
 an Shimeld (University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20170125T130000Z
DTEND:20170125T140000Z
UID:TALK70489@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Olivia Tidswell
DESCRIPTION:The complex central (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems (PNS)
  of vertebrates have evolved from simpler nervous systems\, arguably simil
 ar to those seen in living amphioxus. Amphioxus has far fewer neural cells
  than vertebrates\, and probably also fewer types of cells. Such evolution
 ary change can be broken into three components: making lots more cells (co
 ntrol of proliferation/stem cell populations)\, organising those cells (pa
 tterning) and\, probably\, inventing new types of cells (differentiation).
  Focusing on placodes in the PNS and the spinal cord in the CNS\, I will d
 iscuss our recent work aimed at understanding these changes\, using the ea
 rly-diverging chordate lineages amphioxus\, ascidians and lampreys. For pl
 acodes we have used FACS-seq to profile types of sensory neurons\, work ai
 med at developing vertebrate cell-type ‘fingerprints’ for comparative 
 study. In the spinal cord we focus on the signalling pathways regulating c
 ell proliferation and patterning\, including the Notch\, Wnt and Hh pathwa
 ys and their roles in progenitor cell maintenance and patterned differenti
 ation. Our overall aim is to define the gene regulatory changes behind mor
 phological change in the early vertebrate nervous system. 
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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