The Becoming of Life

How do all organisms start off as one cell and grow into a complex being with various functioning parts? How do we build the various parts of our body? How do cells know what to be and where to go? And how can we use our knowledge of other species to learn lessons that apply to human physiology and disease. Join Ashley as she discusses how her research on the development of the chicken spine is working to help other researchers establish models of human spinal cord that can be used for future therapeutic treatments.

Whether we have two Xs, a X and a Y or a different combination, we all have sex chromosomes. Early in the embryo development, mechanisms are in place to make sure each cell gets the correct amount of information from our sex chromosomes. Join me to explore how opossum embryos develop, and discover what we can learn from these kangaroo and koala's cousins.

We all began life as a fertilised egg, a single cell, the divisions of which generated the entire population of different types of cells that make up our bodies. My lab wants to understand life beyond the cellular level, mapping the complex rearrangements of proteins, lipids, sugar and nucleic acids that make up each and every single of our specialised cells. Join us as we showcase our journey to uncover the subcellular events happening during the process of cell division.

The Making Lab is a Science and Technology Platform at the Crick. We are here to custom make devices to help Crick researchers carry out experiments which they otherwise could not. Given the huge range of research happening at the Crick, we have very varied projects, involving everything from tiny devices for things such as single cell immobilization, up to large electronic and engineering devices for behavioural imaging! During the break between talks, chat with members of the lab to find out more. Prizes to be won!