# CB 207: Vertebrate Developmental, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology CB207 is evenly divided between lectures and conference sessions which cover the principals that guide vertebrate development and stem cell maintenance in various renewing tissues; in addition, we discuss how these principals can be leveraged to generate cells/tissues for regenerative biology or disease modeling in vitro. Specific topics include a molecular dissection of the signaling pathways, gene regulatory networks, and epigenetic mechanisms that control primary axis formation and regional specification, establishment of cell fate, homeotic genes and patterning, cell migration and cell-cell signalling, formation of the nervous system, craniofacial development, axonal connections, muscle formation and regeneration, morphogenesis of branched tubular systems, vasculogenesis, biomechanical regulation of developmental processes, limb development and regeneration, stem cell maintenance in various renewing tissues, germ cells and pluripotency. We will discuss in depth how the same molecular tool kit employed during development also maintains stem cells in the adult; and can be redeployed to generate cells/tissues for regenerative biology or disease modeling in vitro. Students employ the knowledge gained by lectures and conference sessions to identify two interesting new research goals in either vertebrate development, stem cell, or regenerative biology and present research proposals to achieve these goals. Thus, a goal of this course is for students to learn how to synthesize the literature to come up with their own novel research ideas, and develop a strategy to investigate their hypotheses. **Previous Year's Syllabus** SortDate Format Topic Lecturer Establishing the Body Plan: Concepts and Technologies 1-27 Lecture A Toolbox to tinker an embryo and the vertebrate game plan Lassar 1-29 Lecture How positional information is established in gastrulation Megason 2-3 Conference Establishing positional information with in vitro models Megason/Lassar 2-5 Lecture Hox Code, Segmentation, Bilateral Symmetry, and Left-Right Patterning Pourpuie 2-10 Conference Hox Codes and Anteroposterior Axis Specification Pourpuie/Megason 2-12 Lecture Metamerization of paraxial mesoderm and modeling development in vitro with iPS technology Pourquie 2-17 President's Day 2-19 Conference Directed Differentiatin of ES and iPS cells for regeneration and disease modeling García-Cardeña/Lassar 2-24 Lecture Dynamic interpretation of signals by cells: quantitative imaging Megason 2-26 Conference Quantitative modeling of developmental signaling in vitro Pourquie 3-2 Student Presentations Student Specified Topics Megason/Lassar/Pourquie/Lehoczky From Cells to Tissues 3-4 Lecture Morphogens and their interpretation: wiring cell fate in the developing neural tube Lassar 3-9 Conference Organoid models of nervous system development and their application Lassar/Pourquie 3-11 Lecture Guided Migration: Axon Development and Regeneration Flanagan 3-16 Spring Vacation 3-18 Spring Vacation 3-23 Lecture Branching morphogenesis in vascular development García-Cardeña 3-25 Conference Pathfinding in regeneration García-Cardeña/Flanagan 3-30 DRB Symposium 4-1 Lecture Neuromuscular development and mechanistic insights for human birth defects/congential diseases Gupta 4-6 Conference Skeletal muscle stem cells in aging and disease Gupta/Lassar 4-8 Lecture Formation of the skeleton and Integration of the musculo-skeletal system Lassar 4-13 Student Presentations Student Specified Topics Lassar/Kreidberg/Flanagan/Gupta Integration: From Tissues to Organs 4-15 Lecture Limb Patterning Lehoczky 4-2 Conference Limb Regeneration Lehoczky/Lassar 4-22 Lecture Endoderm-derived organ development/branching morphogenesis and RTK signaling Kreidberg 4-27 Conference Modeling development with epithelial organoids Kreidberg/Megason 4-29 Lecture Biomechanical Regulation of Developmental Processes Garcia-Cardena 5-4 Conference García-Cardeña/Kreidberg García-Cardeña/Kreidberg 5-6 Conference Zen and the Art of Embryo Construction Lassar and Colleagues 5-11 Lecture Urogenital Developent and Sexual Differentiation Kreidberg 5-13 Student Presentations Student Specified Topics Megason/Kreidberg/Lehoczky/Garcia-Cardena **Examples of research topics proposed by prior years’ CB207 students include:** The Role of Notch Signaling in Biliary-Driven Regeneration in Zebrafish Regulation of Epiblast Transition by Subunit Switching in a Chromatin Remodeler Probing the effects of Ibuprofen on enteric neural crest cell migration in iPSC-derived neural crest cells Role of Non-Canonical Hippo Pathway in Neuroectoderm Differentiation Regulation of liver remodeling during lamprey metamorphosis by thyroid hormone signaling The Molecular Basis of Hydrostatic Pressure Interpretation During Neural Expansion Hematopoietic Stem Cell Aging and Rejuvenation by Osteopontin Germline Stem Cells (GSCs) in the Adult Mammalian Ovary The course site can be found [here](https://cb207.hms.harvard.edu/).