EMBL Australia

Your first hug: how the early embryo changes shape

Captured on camera, published in Nature Cell Biology

For the first time, we have been able to watch as filopodia reach out and grab neighbouring cells, pulling them closer and elongating the cell membranes. Credit EMBL Aus

For the first time, we have been able to watch as filopodia reach out and grab neighbouring cells, pulling them closer and elongating the cell membranes. Credit: EMBL Australia

When you were an embryo, just 8-cells large, your eight roundish cells did something they had never done before – something that would determine whether you survived or failed. They changed their shape.

The cells became elongated and compacted against each other, before returning to their rounded shape and dividing again and again.

It may seem simple enough, but this shaping process of cell elongation and compaction is essential for embryo success. When compaction does not occur, embryos tend not to survive. And the timing of compaction has been linked to success in IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatments.

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Connecting Australian researchers to Europe and Japan: EMBL Australia in November

In this month’s newsletter:

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RIKEN and JSPS visits, sharing coral genomes, grants for Europe visits: EMBL Australia in October

In this month’s newsletter:

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Partnering with Japan, understanding pathogens and more travel grants for students: EMBL Australia in September

In this month’s EMBL Australia newsletter:

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First PhD Course a success; bioinformatics survey results; and a new language for a new biology: EMBL Australia in August

In this month’s EMBL Australia newsletter:

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Building links between sciences; international training for bioinformaticians; and launching our PhD Course

In this month’s EMBL Australia newsletter:

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Neurodegeneration: from lab to clinic with systems biology

University of Melbourne, Tuesday 11 June

Understanding neurodegeneration is one of the big life science challenges. It’s attracting massive international investment but the complexity of the brain means there will be no simple answers.

That’s why we’ve chosen neurodegenerative diseases as the topic for the first Victorian Systems Biology Collaborative on Tuesday 11 June.

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Personalised medicine: a young life saved through genomics and systems biology

Symposium: Royal Children’s Hospital, Monday 3 Junehoward_jacob

Professor Howard Jacob is getting genomics out of the research lab and into the clinic.

He’s at the forefront of personalised medicine. He and his colleagues successfully treated a five year old with a life threatening digestive condition in 2010, sequencing the boy’s genome to find a rare mutation.

He says we need to not just talk about how personal genomes will change medicine. It’s time to use it now especially for undiagnosed conditions.

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Funding for young science leaders and support for PhD students

EMBL Australia is offering secure funding for young science leaders to set up their own research group supported by the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

Also high on the agenda is building a bioinformatics community, through the launch of the Australian Bioinformatics Network. And getting feedback from scientists on their bioinformatics needs.

Plus: PhD symposiums, travel grants and training school. And how to get maths students interested in systems biology.

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