User:DickGordonCan/Embryo Physics

Embryo Physics is an emerging field that tries to bridge the gap between the genotype and phenotype of a living organism. The basic question is: How does an embryo build itself?

We are running an online course in Second Life® that meets 4pm Central Time every Thursday, starting in January, 2009, at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Owlet/147/164/119/?title=SBR%20Embryo%20Course

Enrolment is open. It is based on the book:

Gordon, R. (1999). The Hierarchical Genome and Differentiation Waves: Novel Unification of Development, Genetics and Evolution, Singapore & London: World Scientific & Imperial College Press. http://www.worldscibooks.com/books/lifesci/2755.html, 2 vols., 1836p.

and:

Gordon, R. & C.A. Melvin (2003). Reverse engineering the embryo: a graduate course in developmental biology for engineering students at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 47(2/3), 183-187.

On January 29, 2009 we will have a guest speaker, Stuart Newman, author of:

Forgacs, G. & S.A. Newman (2005). Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Physics-Developing-Embryo-Forgacs/dp/0521783372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208518248&sr=1-1

Our initial discussions have centered on the question of symmetry of the just fertilized egg. Two references on this are:

Evsikov, S.V., L.M. Morozova & A.P. Solomko (1994). Role of ooplasmic segregation in mammalian development. Roux's Arch. Dev. Biol. 203, 199-204.

Nouri, C., R. Luppes, A.E.P. Veldman, J.A. Tuszynski & R. Gordon (2008). Rayleigh instability of the inverted one-cell amphibian embryo [Invited: "Physical Aspects of Developmental Biology" special issue, Guest Editor Shane Hutson, Vanderbilt University]. Physical Biology 5, 015006.

The following special issue brought together most of the people working in the field:

Beloussov, L.V. & R. Gordon (2006). Preface. Morphodynamics: Bridging the Gap between the Genome and Embryo Physics. International Journal of Developmental Biology 50(2/3), 79-80. (All papers in this special issue are free at: http://www.ijdb.ehu.es/web/contents.php?vol=50&issue=2-3)