Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, PhD

At Work: Developmental Biologist Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis Developmental biologist Kat Hadjantonakis works to gain insights into the critical events that direct the formation and shape of mammalian embryos. Learn more »

The long-term goal of our work is to understand the events underlying cell lineage development, tissue patterning and morphogenesis in the early mammalian embryo. To address these questions we are using the tools of mouse functional genomics, including transgenesis and targeted mutagenesis, live imaging and expression profiling.

Our interrelated areas of interest include:

• Cell dynamics and cell-cell interactions driving the morphogenesis of the early mammalian embryo: the sequence of events at gastrulation, germ layer formation and somitogenesis.
• Lineage specification in the embryo, the derivation and directed differentiation of embryo-derived stem cells.
• The generation of tools and development of methods for live imaging in ES cells and embryos.