Inaugural lecture by Prof. Osamu Shimmi

Osamu Shimmi, UT Professor in Developmental Biology, presents his inaugural lecture entitled “Cellular dynamics and signalling in tissue development: lessons from fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster” on 17 October 2019 at 16:15 in the University Assembly Hall.

Animal development from embryo to adulthood involves dynamic changes in tissue structures. Previous studies have revealed mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis at the molecular level, showing that morphogenesis is mediated by a limited number of evolutionarily conserved signalling proteins. Despite the increasing knowledge of tissue morphogenesis, it remains poorly understood how the dynamic tissue structure affects the signalling. Furthermore, the emerging field of multicellular organisation from stem cells or self-organisation of tissue architecture suggests that local intercellular interactions drive the genesis of multicellular structure. This leads to the hypothesis that intrinsic cellular signals coordinate size, shape, and cell types in tissue development.

In this lecture, Professor Shimmi will introduce what kind of approaches can be utilised in addressing these issues. He will talk about recent findings of how dynamic changes in cellular structures impact tissue architecture in a 3D-environment. Finally, Professor Shimmi will discuss how research in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster leads to further understanding of human development as well as human diseases.

Osamu Shimmi is Professor of Developmental Biology at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu. He received his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Tsukuba, Japan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Minnesota, USA. Since 2005 he was a group leader of the Developmental Biology programme, Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki. He has been a member of the Centre of Excellence in Experimental and Computational Developmental Biology of the Academy of Finland since 2014. His research is focused on tissue morphogenesis and signalling in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. His
previous findings include molecular mechanisms underlying BMP morphogen gradient formation in the early embryo of Drosophila (Cell 2005) and mechanisms coupling tissue shape and dynamic signalling (PNAS 2019).