‘A multidisplinary computational and experimental approach to morphogenesis in the vertebrate limb bud’

Concepción Rodríguez Esteban, Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Juan Hurle González, Marta Ibañes Miguez, Vanessa Zuzarte Luis.

Our specific scientific aims in this project are the following: 1. To create a user-friendly software to study in silico morphogenetic processes, such as the development of the vertebrate limb; 2. To make 3D and 4D reconstructions of embryo parts coupled to the dynamics of gene expression patterns in order to quantify the dependence of cell dynamics on gene expression patterns; 3. To establish a theoretical framework for the integration of gene regulatory networks with cell dynamics; and 4. To give insights and make testable predictions on key elements of morphogenetic processes such as how differentiation proceeds, the spatial and temporal control of growth and programmed cell death, and the robustness and flexibility of developmental processes. Our multidisciplinary approach is novel because it integrates both the molecular and the cellular level of organization. The mathematical model will be constructed on a user-friendly environment using object oriented programming, and will be available to the entire community. The software developed is expected to become a reference and common platform for the numerical study of morphogenetic processes.