Jonathan TIlly
Northeastern University, MA·Biology
A few days after fertilization, a mammalian embryo is a ball of about 100 cells that look identical. Then comes the first cell-fate decision: some cells become the inner cell mass, which forms the embryo itself, while others become the trophectoderm, which forms the placenta.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Physiology
- Topics
mitochondria
cell fate
developmental biology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Compare mitochondrial size, energy profiles and protein makeup between inner cell mass (embryo-forming) cells and trophectoderm (placenta-forming) cells in mouse blastocysts, using a new mitochondrial subpopulation analysis method.
- Test whether mitochondria take up the transcription factor Tead4, a switch for placenta genes, and shuttle it so that Tead4 activity is restricted to cells destined to form the placenta.
- Track how mitochondrial subtypes are passed to daughter cells during uneven embryonic cell divisions, using mitochondrial lineage tracing, and test whether this distribution decides cell fate.
More about the research
What triggers this split is a long-standing question in developmental biology. One of the earliest known signals is Tead4, a transcription factor (a protein that switches genes on) that activates placenta-specific genes. Mice lacking Tead4 never form trophectoderm and die as embryos. Yet it is unclear how Tead4's activity ends up limited to only the future placenta cells.
Why it matters
This is basic research into how cells decide their fate in the earliest mammalian embryo. It could reveal a previously unknown role for mitochondria as carriers of gene-control proteins. Understanding the core mechanisms that set cell fate could eventually inform research on organ development, function, aging and disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Friedman
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biology
Determine how structural changes are coordinated across the two mitochondrial membranes during mitochondrial fission, the process by which these organelles divide.
Upasna Sharma
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Biology
Determine whether Mettl7a1, a predicted RNA methyltransferase that adds methyl tags to RNA, is needed for minor zygotic genome activation and normal early development in mouse preimplantation embryos.
Kenneth Zaret
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Genetics
Determine how heterochromatin changes and the movement and clustering of transcription factors guide endoderm cells to become liver, using light-sheet imaging of live mouse embryos with genetic perturbations.
The school
Northeastern University: 27 labs on PI Pages, $347M a year on research, 251 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.