Dr. Hervé Turlier (Collège de France & CNRS)

Abstract

Early embryogenesis is archetypal of a self-organized process, where the emergence of a complex structure stems from the interaction of its elementary parts. Progress in imaging and molecular genetics allows us to delve into embryos at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions, but extracting biophysical information from such complex multidimensional data remains a highly technical challenge. In this talk I will introduce some of our efforts to develop mathematical models and 3D computational methods to unravel the biophysical principles underlying early embryo development. I will present our recent results on the emergence and positioning of a cavity in the preimplantation mammalian embryos (1,2) and discuss novel approaches to segment cell interfaces and to infer cell mechanical properties from confocal microscopy images of cell membranes. I will conclude on perspectives at the frontier of machine learning and physical modeling to reverse-engineer the sequence of biochemical and mechanical events required to design a realistic…