Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Agnieszka Jedrusik

Agnieszka and Magdalena study early mouse embryo development at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. They both studied embryology at the University of Warsaw before coming to England - Magdalena some 15 years ago, already as a postdoc, with Agnieszka joining Magdalena's lab as a PhD student three years later.

In order to understand how the very first cell fate decisions are taken, Magdalena's team has aimed to bring together experimental embryology with techniques she has developed to manipulate gene expression in individual cells and their progeny. Magdalena says: "The first cell fate decisions set apart a population of stem cells and surround them in a cradle of extra-embryonic cells that will both contribute to the placenta and also provide signals that instruct the stem cells to contribute to the head and rear of the future body. To understand these processes we have had to develop a variety of techniques for imaging fixed and living embryos following our experimental manipulations."

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