Dynamics of early gene expression

Understanding gene expression regulation shortly after fertilization is particularly challenging. Our interest is to dissect random effects and programmed operation during early development and find links to cancer progression and the intensely discussed cancer stem cells. We set up a first gene expression model to reproduce gene expression characteristics observed in our collaborative research project with the group of Dr. Tony Perry (University of Bath, UK). The immediate intent of this project is to fuse different experimental observations and explore possibilities of further experimentation that can settle basic questions on embryo and cancer evolution.