BME Lecture Series: “Illuminating the Dynamic Processes of Embryogenesis”

Abstract: My group investigates the fundamental principles that guide how cells self-organize through collective interactions to bring about changes in embryonic form and function. We are interested in how molecules work together to control the timing and the spatial pattern of cell differentiation in developing tissues and stem cell systems. Over the past decade we developed transgenic, fluorescent protein (FP)-expressing Japanese quail as an experimental system. We simultaneously developed state-of-the-art live cell and tissue imaging methodologies and use them to better understand the complex cellular processes underlying embryonic development and disease.

Biography: Lansford is an associate professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine & Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He received his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from UC Berkeley, his master's and Ph.D. in immunology from Columbia University with Prof. Fred Alt, and completed his postdoctoral training in development biology and optics at Caltech with Professor Scott Fraser. He is currently the director of molecular imaging and of gene therapy and viral vector core at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NASA Space Act Award for Two-photon Microscope Imaging Spectrometer for Multiple Fluorescent Probes. His research interests include biomedical optics, neural and vascular development, and metabolic processes during development.