Cell reprogramming and early embryo development

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Deciphering how embryos start regulating their development and cells begin differentiating to form a new organism is a fundamental field of research in biology to better understand how the different species reproduce and propagate. More recently, embryo development, cell differentiation and reprogramming have emerged as leading research topics for development of new cell therapies and assisted reproductive technologies for applications in animals and humans. For instance, embryo-based technologies have been applied to mitigate fertility issues in humans and animals, to accelerate animal breeding and selection programs in livestock, and to help reproducing and preserving endangered species. Similarly, the capacity to induce cell reprogramming and differentiation has enabled the production of cells having promising applications for regeneration of damaged cell and tissues. However, despite of remarkable recent research advances in these fields, much remains to be done. For example, it is still unknown why a significant proportion of embryos arrest developing after few cell divisions. In addition, the efficiency to induce complete cell reprogramming by nuclear transfer, the original method used to demonstrate that the cell differentiation process is reversible in mammals, is still very low. Moreover, it is still largely unknown if the fundamental mechanisms coordinating early development and cell reprogramming are the same in different species. To help finding answers to these important biology questions, my research program will study the regulation of early embryo development and cell reprogramming in pigs given its relevance for food production and also as a representative animal model for studying human physiology and disease, and for the development and testing of new therapies. Our specific goals are to determine how early developing embryos acquire the capacity to control their development by activating genes encoded in their genome and how they initiate cell differentiation. In addition, we plan to increase cell reprogramming by expressing embryonic factors in cultured somatic cells and in nuclear transfer embryos. The proposed research will contribute new knowledge on the regulation of early embryo development in pigs. In addition, this research may lead to the identification of embryo factors, which are useful selection markers for litter size and prolificity, the top traits desired in swine production. This would have a tremendous impact on the Canadian swine industry, the 5th largest pork exporter with ~1.3 billion tons and >$4 billion dollars, in 2017. With better understanding of cell reprogramming, the efficiency of SCNT technology may also improve production of pluripotent and totipotent cells and this has important implications for the development of new swine lineages for biomedical applications as well as for species conservation.