US-Finland Cooperative Research on the Molecular Basis of Embryonic Induction

该奖项为斯沃斯莫尔学院的Scott F. Gilbert教授对芬兰赫尔辛基大学病理学系Lauri Saxen教授的实验室进行的长期（休假）研究访问提供部分支持。他们感兴趣的是了解形态发生的早期事件，并试图确定哪些基因被诱导剂激活。他们的方法是从未诱导和新诱导的小鼠肾脏间充质组织中构建cDNA文库。通过比较诱导和未诱导的间质mRNA，他们将能够确定哪些基因被诱导剂激活，并建立肾脏诱导的时空序列。这是一种识别早期转录事件的强大和超灵敏的技术。此次合作将Saxen博士在胚胎肾脏诱导、分化和形态发生方面的世界级专业知识与Gilbert博士在研究诱导和组织能力的分子生物学方法方面的经验和兴趣结合在一起。发育生物学最大的挑战之一是核基因组如何指导包含复杂组织协调排列的复杂器官的形态发生。这个问题的核心是细胞在器官发生过程中如何对邻近细胞的诱导影响作出反应。哺乳动物肾脏的诱导已经成为这种器官发生的模型，其中两个组织之间的相互作用创造了器官的雏形。提出的合作努力将有助于我们对形态发生的分子基础的理解。

This award provides partial support for a long term >(sabbatical) research visit by Professor Scott F. Gilbert of Swarthmore College to the laboratory of Professor Lauri Saxen of the Department of Pathology of the University of Helsinki, Finland. They are interested in understanding the early events of morphogenesis, and are attempting to establish which genes are being activated by the inducer. Their approach is to construct cDNA libraries from uninduced and from newly induced mesenchymal tissue in mouse kidney. By comparing those mRNA's from induced and uninduced mesenchyme, they will be able to determine which genes are activated by the inducer and establish a temporal and spatial sequence of kidney induction. This is emerging as a powerful and ultasensitive techniques for identifying early transcriptive events. The collaboration brings together Dr. Saxen's world class expertise in embryonic kidney induction, differentiation and morphogenesis with the experience and interest of Dr. Gilbert in molecular biological methods for studying induction and tissue competence. One of the greatest challenges of developmental biology concerns how the nuclear genome instructs the morphogenesis of complex organs containing intricately coordinated arrangements of tissues. Central to this issue is how cells respond to inductive influences from neighboring cells during organogenesis. The induction of the mammalian kidney has become a model for such organogenesis where reciprocal interactions between two tissues create the rudiments of an organ. The proposed collaborative effort will contribute to our understanding of the molecular basis of morphogenesis.