Anne Havlik

School: The University of Chicago

Major: Biological Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-h6kr-1j87

Anne Havlik is a third-year at The University of Chicago from Milwaukee, Wisconsin majoring in both biological sciences and neuroscience. She leads the urban farming initiative for Phoenix Farms on campus and is studying the mechanisms of early neural tube development within the Sanders Lab in the Grossman Institute of Neuroscience. The crucial developmental process of neural tube closure results in the development of the central nervous system in vertebrates. Anne is using a variety of molecular, physical biological techniques, and imaging procedures to further identify and understand the significant developmental cellular architectures and mechanistic pathways of embryogenesis..

Development of the Early Neural Tube During Chick Embryogenesis

Abstract

In partnership with Dr. Timothy Sanders, MD, PhD, this study sought to further reveal the unknown mechanisms of neural tube closure in vertebrate embryos. As the neural tube develops, an array of complex morphogenetic movements leads to changes in cell morphology and cell fate. These changes result in epithelial fusion of opposing specialized structures known as neural folds, leading to the creation of two separate structures: the neural tube and the non-neural ectoderm. The communication between neural progenitor cells was studied through both fixed and live embryo imaging of stained membranes in the chicken embryo, a widely accepted model organism in developmental biology. Through fixed embryo staining and live embryo injection of targeted membrane specific dyes followed by electroporation, pathways of injected progenitor cells were imaged during early stages of embryonic development. The authors used bright-field microscopy, stereomicroscopy fluorescence, and computational clearing, paired with the use of several different dyes and trials to mechanistically image and delineate cellular architecture of the process of neural tube closure in chick development. The authors created a reliable experimental paradigm to collect and image the morphology of the closing neural tube in developing chick embryos. The researchers created this convenient developmental tool via exploration and optimization of several combined methods to further delineate the process of neural tube closure both anteriorly and posteriorly throughout early vertebrate nervous system development. This information is useful for furthering our understanding of one of the most common birth defects in humans, neural tube defects (NTDs). NTDs, posteriorly identified as spina bifida, affect the human nervous system functions in over 300,000 live births per year. This experimental paradigm will allow us to advance our understanding of NTDs as well as improve treatment strategies for patients with NTDs.