Understanding the dynamics of tissue pattern formation during embryonic development.
The Özbudak Lab
The Özbudak Lab’s overriding interest is to achieve a systems-level understanding of embryonic development and pattern formation by integrating quantitative experiments with computational modeling.
In the Özbudak Lab, single-cell confocal microscopy measurements are combined with time-resolved perturbation experiments, genome-wide techniques, biophysical modeling and computational simulations to decipher the mechanism underlying robust spatiotemporal pattern formation and cell fate determination.
Lab Leadership
Ertuğrul Özbudak, PhD
Robert Laughlin Rea Professor of Anatomy
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Featured Research
Clock Stripes
Two segmentation clock genes are co-transcribed in the unsegmented presomitic mesoderm in the tail end of a developing zebrafish embryo.
Segmentation Clock and ERK Activity Reporter Time Lapse
Simultaneous time-lapse imaging of the segmentation clock and ERK activity reporter, together with nucleus and cell membrane markers, in the presomitic mesoderm at the tail end of a developing zebrafish embryo.
Hour Glass
The segmentation clock proteins are expressed as kinematic waves in the presomitic mesoderm of a developing zebrafish embryo. The image is obtained by mirror-imaging the spatiotemporal kymographs.
ERK Activity in the Presomitic Mesoderm
Positional information for segment borders is sequentially specified by the ratiometric difference of ERK activity among neighboring cells in the presomitic mesoderm at the tail end of a developing zebrafish embryo.
Muscle Somites
Some of the cells located in segmented somites later differentiate to multi-nucleated skeletal muscles.
Kinematic Waves in Unsegmented Presomitic Mesoderm
Segmentation clock proteins display kinematic waves in the unsegmented presomitic mesoderm at the tail end of a developing zebrafish embryo.
Select Publications
Reengineering Somite Segmentation without a Biological Clock
Discovery seen as important for biomedical engineering and developmental biology research involving disruptions to early embryonic development.
The study was published online in Nature in 2023.
Gene Pairing is Advantages for Developmental Pattern Formation
Discovery seen as important for genome engineering and transcriptional research studying early embryonic development.
The study was published December 23, 2020, in Nature.
News and Media Coverage
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The Özbudak Lab is actively recruiting graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research technicians.
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