Biophysical study of the coupling between cell proliferation and morphogen gradients

Project Information

MORPHOGRAD

Grant agreement ID: 299659

Project closed

Start date 1 February 2013

End date 31 January 2015

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 184 709,40

EU contribution € 184 709,40

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE
Switzerland

Objective

As well as controlling patterning, morphogens such as the Drosophila BMP homolog Decapentaplegic (Dpp) also regulate growth during development, but how they do so remains largely unclear. One privileged hypothesis, called the steepness hypothesis, suggests that cells in a tissue read spatial differences in the morphogen gradient and divide accordingly. However, the host lab recently discovered a novel mechanism by which the Dpp gradient controls growth: in the Drosophila wing disc, cells are able to read temporal differences in the Dpp gradient and regulate their cell cycle accordingly. More precisely, cells divide when their Dpp signalling level has increased by a constant percentage alpha since the start of their current cell cycle.
Using biophysical methods, I will expand this work and study the molecular mechanisms coupling proliferation control with temporal changes in the Dpp gradient. I will generate cell cycle biosensors in order to monitor cell cycle parameters and their evolution throughout wing development, using fixed samples but also thanks to live imaging. I will also analyse the cell cycle and Dpp gradient characteristics in different tumourigenic conditions, in the hope to uncover general principles governing tumour formation. Finally, as several interactions have been uncovered between Dpp signalling and the tumour suppressor Hippo pathway, I will assess thanks to cell culture as well as in vivo assays whether the Hippo pathway could mediate the continued sensitivity of cells to the temporal Dpp signalling increase throughout development.

Fields of science

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › sensors › biosensors

Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF - Marie-Curie Action: "Intra-European fellowships for career development"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE

• EU contribution: € 184 709,40
• Address: RUE DU GENERAL DUFOUR 24 ; 1211 Geneve ; Switzerland
• Region: Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera › Région lémanique › Genève
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Administrative Contact: Marcos González-Gaitán (Prof.)
• Total cost: No data