Morphogenesis 2009

Aims The problem of how cells become organized into three-dimensional tissues is one of the most important topics in biological research. Precisely coordinated changes in cellular behavior determine the shape and size of organs forming during embryogenesis. In adult organisms, dynamic changes in tissue organization underlie wound healing and regeneration, while a loss thereof is a hallmark of cancer. Therefore, studies addressing tissue dynamics in embryos or cultured multicellular systems will have a great impact on our understanding of medically important processes.

Traditionally, developmental biologists have studied such processes using a global, static readout at the organism level. By contrast, cell biologists have a tradition of studying dynamic aspects of cell machinery using isolated cells in an artificial environment. It is clear however, that in order to understand the morphogenesis and dynamics of multicellular systems these two disciplines have to merge. Furthermore, as many aspects of morphogenesis involve physical mechanisms, such as force generation or modulating tension, it is desirable to include biophysical approaches when addressing morphogenesis. This means computer based experimental approaches such as simulations will play an increasingly important role in this field.

The combination of new imaging-, computer- and experimental manipulation technologies now provide opportunities for cell biologists to study dynamic cellular machines in the context of the intact developing embryo. These technologies also allow investigating biophysical aspects of development such as the role and distribution of forces, for example during gastrulation, when multiple tissues move and form simultaneously. Developmental biology, cell biology and biophysics as a consequence are rapidly becoming intertwined and it is this inter-disciplinarity that the meeting intends to foster. Special care will be taken to select speakers from diverse fields of research at the interface between the three disciplines. The focus will be on global aspects of collective cell behavior rather than on molecular details.

A central technology enabling such interdisciplinary research is real time imaging of fluorescent reporters in whole tissues or even in the living, intact organism. This not only has the advantage of providing a realistic context but also enables quantification of tissue dynamics. Another important emerging technology is computer simulations, which allow mathematically exploring tissue behavior. Because both technologies are rapidly evolving a session will be dedicated to presenting and discussing the latest technological advances in combination with a panel discussion on how to integrate and optimize such technologies. Topics The conference will deal with seven topics over a period of 4 days:

1. Cell Surface Mechanics 2. Collective Migration 3. Organ Morphogenesis 4. Cancer as a Morphogenetic Process 5. Increasing and Decreasing Order within Tissues 6. New Methodologies for Addressing Tissue Dynamics (+Panel Discussion). 7. Coupling Morphogenetic Domains across the Developing Embryo (+Panel Discussion). This CfP was obtained from WikiCFP