Building towards understanding — leveraging stem-cell-based embryo models to elucidate principles of development

Date

Mar 25, 2026

Time

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Speaker

Dr. Jesse Veenvliet

Affiliation

Stembryogenesis Lab, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden; Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, TU Dresden; Center for Systems Biology Dresden

Series

TUD ZIH Kolloquium

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Other Topics

Biologie, Chemie, Informatik, Medizin, Physik, Willkommen

Host

Hartmut Mix

Description

Our lab investigates the principles underlying robust formation of the mammalian body axes, which organize the future body plan. While gene-regulatory networks are well characterized, how micro-environmental inputs arising from the physiological micro-environment contribute to the robustness of axial patterning and morphogenesis remains unclear. This is largely due to the complexity and constraints of in vivo development. We use stem-cell-based embryo models, such as gastruloids and trunk-like structures, which combine scalability and ease of measurement and manipulation with in vivo-like patterning and morphogenesis, making them ideal to obtain quantitative, causal, mechanistic insights. We integrate embryo models with live imaging, omics, genetics, biophysics, and data science to uncover how interactions between the embryo model and its micro-environment drive robust morphogenesis.

Current research focuses on: (1) biophysical principles of axis elongation; (2) metabolic regulation of patterning and morphogenesis; (3) roles of extracellular matrix remodeling; (4) robustness in axial progenitor fate decisions; and (5) leveraging variation to predict and control embryo model behavior.

Jesse Veenvliet studied Medicine at the Radboud University (Nijmegen), followed by an MSc in Experimental & Clinical Neuroscience at Utrecht University. He then did his PhD in the field of molecular and developmental neuroscience in the lab of Marten Smidt, at the Rudolf Magnus Institute in Utrecht and the Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences in Amsterdam. For his postdoc, he joined the lab of Bernhard Herrmann at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, where he developed one of the first stem-cell-based models of early mammalian development. In May 2021 he moved to Dresden to start his independent lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. His group develops and uses mouse and human stem-cell-based embryo models to elucidate the principles governing robustness of mammalian body plan formation.

ONLINE BBB: Link ZIH-Colloquia (https://bbb.tu-dresden.de/b/har-oa6-col-lmy)

Links

• Webseite
• Termindetails auf den Webseiten der TU Dresden (https://tu-dresden.de)

Last modified: Mar 13, 2026, 7:38:00 AM