A huge congratulations to the Prince Lab’s newest PhD, Dr. Ana Beiriger. Her PhD thesis is titled “Origins and Migration of the Octavolateral Efferent and Facial Branchiomotor Neurons in Zebrafish”. Ana led the lab’s studies on resolving the developmental origins of the facial branchiomotor neurons and octavolateral Efferent neurons and their tangential migration through the zebrafish hindbrain. She also pioneered the use of high resolution lightsheet microscopy to rapidly image neuronal migration in the hindbrain, a technique that is now extensively used by most lab members. We’re very lucky to have Ana stay on in the lab after her defense to continue working on some research projects. For more on Ana’s research, check out the Research section and look out for her soon to be published paper in the Journal Of Comparative Neurology!

Developmental biology makes for beautiful ideas and beautiful images! A confocal microscopy image of a transgenic 18 hour post fertilization embryo showing migrating neural crest cells made the cover of the journal Developmental Dynamics for January 2020. The image is from the lab’s latest publication: Neural crest development: insights from the zebrafish by current lab members Manny Rocha, Anastasia Beiriger, Noor Singh, Vicky Prince, and former lab graduate student Kamil Ahsan. Check out the paper here: https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvdy.122

Prince lab fifth year graduate student Manny Rocha was featured on the NIH’s instagram page. Manny, originally from Costa Rica, is a recipient of the prestigious F31 diversity training grant which provides for research work, attending conferences, and collaborations with other labs. Manny is currently working on the early development and patterning of neural crest cells along the head-trunk axis.

 

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Meet Manny Rocha, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Victoria Prince at the University of Chicago. Manny’s research is supported by our F31 diversity training grant, which enables him to attend scientific conferences, form research collaborations, and even train in other labs. Manny, originally from Costa Rica, studies neural crest cells, a temporary cell that exists during embryonic development. Using zebrafish as a model, Manny investigates how neural crest cells develop into two distinct types that are responsible for forming the head and the trunk of the body. When problems arise in this early development, diseases called neurocristopathies can occur. These include cleft palate, Waardenburg syndrome, and Hirschsprung disease. Swipe to see more photos of Manny conducting research in the lab, including a microscopy image that made it onto the cover of Developmental Dynamics (credit: Prince Lab at the University of Chicago, http://bit.ly/2Tr2smz, http://bit.ly/35X0rAY). @ucprincelab @uchicago @uchicagobsd #NICHD #NIH #Biology #EmbryonicDevelopment #Research #Lab #Science #Researcher #BirthDefects

A post shared by NICHD (@nichd_nih) on Jan 30, 2020 at 12:18pm PST