Zernicka-Goetz Lab
Principal Investigator: Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz
Institution: California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
How do individual cells self-organize into an epithelialized structure during early mammalian development, while simultaneously establishing distinct lineage identities? At the 8-cell stage, blastomeres undergo compaction and establish apical-basal polarity. During the transition to the 16-cell stage, polarized and apolar cells sort into distinct positions, forming the outer trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass (ICM). These processes rely on coordinated cell adhesion, cytoskeletal forces, and transcriptional programs activated during zygotic genome activation (ZGA). Despite extensive knowledge of mechanical signaling from other developmental contexts, how these cues interface with transcriptional programs during the earliest morphogenetic event of the mammalian embryo, compaction, remains incompletely understood. Our central hypothesis is that α-catenin functions as a mechanical gatekeeper during compaction, translating junctional tension into actomyosin polarization, while ZGA-activated transcription factors, such as Tfap2c and Tead4, coordinate with these mechanical cues to drive epithelial structure and lineage specification. Together, these systems couple mechanical and trans…
Active NIH Awards
- 2R01HD100456-06A1: Discerning the Mechanisms of Compaction and Apical Domain Formation in Early Embryos. (2026)
- 5R01HD101489-05: Biological mechanisms that eliminate aneuploid cells from a mosaic conceptus in the mouse model system (2025)
- 5DP1HD104575-05: Placental models to support embryogenesis in vitro (2024)
- 5R01HD101489-04: Biological mechanisms that eliminate aneuploid cells from a mosaic conceptus in the mouse model system (2024)
- 5R01HD100456-05: Temporal program for cell fate specification in the mouse embryo (2024)
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