Overview
Welcome to the Wylie-Heasman Lab
Chris Wylie, PhD and Janet Heasman, PhD, are the primary investigators in the Wylie-Heasman Laboratory. Here they are preparing to lead the weekly lab meeting.
During the first few weeks of an embryo's life, a recognizable body is formed by the fundamental cellular processes of cell adhesion, cell signaling, cell migration, and cell differentiation. The Wylie-Heasman Laboratory studies the genes that control these events, using the frog Xenopus and the mouse as model systems.
In early Xenopus embryos, individual genes are inactivated by antisense technology and the consequences to body patterning, organ formation, and cell differentiation are studied both by morphological and molecular methods. Such knockouts have revealed how transcription factors, cell signaling molecules, and cytoskeletal elements all play a role in the establishment of body pattern in the vertebrates.
In early mouse embryos, the formation and early differentiation of the gonad is studied using a strain of mouse that expresses a fluorescent protein in all the germ cells. This allows the analysis of germ cells as they migrate to the developing gonad -- as well as the effects of specific gene mutations on this process -- to be studied in live tissue.
The Laboratory provides training for postdocs, graduate students, pediatric fellows, medical students and undergraduates. At any one time, there is typically a group of twelve people in the lab. In addition to one-on-one meetings, the members of the lab meet once per week to discuss individual progress and plans. The faculty and staff also meet weekly with other groups from the Division of Developmental Biology to hear presentations by graduate students or postdocs, news, and general discussion.
For more information, contact Chris Wylie, PhD, 513-636-4473 (christopher.wylie@chmcc.org) or Janet Heasman, PhD, 513-636-8564 (janet.heasman@chmcc.org).
