Project description
How embryos survive stress to enable successful implantation
Infertility is frequently caused by implantation failure and embryo-endometrium asynchrony. However, it remains unclear how embryos molecularly respond to maternal stress throughout the implantation process. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Dormancy Code project investigates embryonic diapause, which is a reversible state of developmental arrest, as a model to understand how embryos integrate stress signals, maintain pluripotency, and preserve viability under adverse conditions. Using a combination of mouse and stem cell models, the project will examine how the integrated stress response, chromatin configuration, and pluripotency networks regulate embryos during dormancy. The project’s overall goal is to uncover biological insights critical for improving human fertility and implantation success.
Objective
Embryo-endometrium asynchrony and implantation failure are major contributors of infertility, affecting over 15% of the EU population. Yet, how embryos sense and integrate maternal cues during the critical implantation window remains unclear. Over 130 mammalian species have evolved embryonic dormancy (diapause), a reversible developmental arrest at implantation triggered by maternal environment stressors such as nutrient deprivation. In this dormant state, embryos adapt to metabolic stress by reducing global RNA and protein synthesis, remodelling chromatin, arresting the cell cycle and maintaining the epiblast in a pluripotent, undifferentiated state. Dormancy integrates stress sensing, metabolic adaptation, and developmental coordination, offering a powerful model to study how embryos survive adverse maternal conditions. While diapause may not occur in humans, its molecular pathways are conserved, offering a comparative framework to investigate how stress influences cell fate decisions, preserves developmental potential, and coordinates survival processes essential for implantation success.
This project will pioneer a mechanistic understanding of how pluripotency and chromatin architecture are maintained and reconfigured under stress while preserving embryo viability. I will address this critical gap by investigating three central questions: (1) What is the contribution of the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) to dormancy and survival? (2) How is the pluripotency network reconfigured under stress? and (3) What chromatin features are dynamically altered during dormancy? Using state-of-the-art genetic and pharmacological perturbations alongside cutting-edge proteomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic approaches in both mouse and stem cell-based dormancy models and supported by my host lab with expertise in early development and epigenetics, this work will uncover fundamental principles of embryogenesis and inform novel strategies to improve implantation outcomes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences developmental biology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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CB22 3AT Cambridge
United Kingdom
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