Bone Development Laboratory

Principal Investigator: 
Tamara Franz-Odendaal, Assoc Professor, Biology

msvu.ca

Research Interests:

1. Craniofacial development 
2. Understanding how developmental processes have changed through evolution
3. How the craniofacial skeleton interacts with soft tissues during development

Our broad interest is in comparative vertebrate craniofacial development and evolution - currently I have focused my research on craniofacial skeleton, specifically the eye region and skull bones. Vertebrate eye development is complex involving a series of inductive interactions. During ontogeny the optic cup is formed prior to development of the surrounding skeletal elements. The developing eye moulds an orbit of the appropriate size and thus a close relationship between the eye and skeleton exists during development. The population of cells we are interested in are the neural crest cells.  
 
Neural crest cells are initially epithelial cells and are part of the neural tube.  During neural tube closure, these cells become mesenchymal and migrate out of the neural tube to different parts of the embryo where they can differentiate into a wide range of cell types (incl. pigment cells, bone cells, neurons etc).   Defects involving the neural crest for example include cleft lip, cleft palate, Waardenburg’s syndrome, craniosynostosis etc. My research group is attempting to understand one population of neural crest cells, the cranial neural crest cells, which contribute to the skull bones and cartilages.  We use three model organisms (zebrafish, Mexican tetra and chicken embryos) in order to understand epigenetic processes prior to the differentiation of neural crest cells into their final fate.  These include tracking neural crest cells using transgenics and fluorescent markers (i.e. migration); trying to understand fate specification (using laser ablation) and trying to unravel one of the most important steps in skeletal formation prior to differentiation; namely condensation formation.  Other techniques include: molecular techniques (RT-PCR, in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry), experimental embryology and microscopy (light, confocal, electron) as tools in my research program.  Another aspect of my research is trying to understand the evolution of developmental processes (induction and patterning) across different vertebrate groups by including the study fossils.

Understanding these fundamental steps in neural crest cell biology is critical to gaining insight into disorders involving this population of cells, such as neurocristopathies; as well as the evolution of elements derived from the neural crest.