Developmental Biology Program

The Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis Lab

Research

Pictured: Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis
Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, PhD
Chair, Developmental Biology Program, SKI; Alfred P. Sloan Chair

Cancer is a condition arising when cells undergo an identity crisis. Understanding of how cells control their identity, and how they assemble into tissues with normal organization and function during embryonic development provides the essential blueprint for gaining insights into the fundamental biological processes that become deregulated in disease states such as cancer. 

Our research focus and goals - how cells form tissues. We are interested in how cells become specialized, and how they collaborate at the population level to collectively build organs. Our focus is on the endoderm, the progenitor tissue that gives rise to respiratory and digestive tracts, and associated organs such as the lung, liver and pancreas. Our overarching goal is to understand how endodermal organs form - in time and space - from populations of uncommitted progenitor cells in the embryo.

Repair, replace, and regenerate. An aspiration is to develop knowledge that will facilitate future efforts to repair, replace or regenerate diseased or damaged tissues. Our research seeks to gain fundamental insights into the processes by which tissues and organs arrise in their native context - the embryo - and consequently, how these mechanisms can be contextually recapitulated or adapted. Furthermore, understanding the processes taking place during normal development paves the way for understanding the mechanisms of cancers in children and young adults (Developmental Oncology).

A multi-disciplinary approach bridging scales. We use mammalian embryo, embryo-derived stem cell, and organoid models, as experimentally tractable platforms for our studies. We have a history of applying cutting-edge high-resolution quantitative methods – from light microscopic imaging to single-cell genomics approaches - to investigate mechanisms driving: (1) the acquisition of cell states and fates leading to the emergence of an endoderm identity, (2) the plasticity and differentiation of endoderm cells and their neighbors, and, (3) the organization and growth of tissue as organs start to take shape from communities of cells. 

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Three-dimensional visualization of nerves (green) and blood vessels (magenta) in a mouse embryo.

 

 

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Go inside the lab of Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis from SKI’s Developmental Biology Program.
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Publications Highlights

Abuhashem A, Lee AS, Joyner AL, Hadjantonakis AK. Rapid and efficient degradation of endogenous proteins in vivo identifies stage-specific roles of RNA Pol II pausing in mammalian development. Dev Cell. 2022 Apr 25;57(8):1068-1080.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.03.013. Epub 2022 Apr 13. PMID: 35421370; PMCID: PMC9047393.

Morgani SM, Su J, Nichols J, Massagué J, Hadjantonakis AK The transcription factor Rreb1 regulates epithelial architecture, invasiveness and vasculogenesis in early mouse embryos Elife. 2021 Apr 30;10:e64811. doi: 10.7554/eLife.64811. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33929320

Simon CS, Rahman S, Raina D, Schröter C, Hadjantonakis AK. Live Visualization of ERK Activity in the Mouse Blastocyst Reveals Lineage-Specific Signaling Dynamics.  Dev Cell. 2020 Oct 16; S1534-5807(20)30762-0. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.09.030

Saiz N, Mora-Bitria L, Rahman S, George H, Herder J, Garcia-Ojalvo J, Hadjantonakis AK.  Growth factor-mediated coupling between lineage size and cell fate choice underlies robustness of mammalian development. Elife. 2020 Jul 28;9:e56079. doi: 10.7554/eLife.56079.

Nowotschin S, Setty M, Kuo YY, Liu V, Garg V, Sharma R, Simon CS, Saiz N, Gardner R, Boutet SC, Church DM, Hoodless PA, Hadjantonakis AK, Pe’er D. The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution. Nature. 2019 May;569(7756):361-367. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1127-1.

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People

Pictured: Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis

Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, PhD

Chair, Developmental Biology Program, SKI; Alfred P. Sloan Chair

  • The Hadjantonakis laboratory studies pluripotency and cell fate specification, tissue patterning and morphogenesis, in mammalian embryos and stem cell-derived embryo models.
  • PhD, Imperial College (London)
[email protected]
Email Address
212-639-3159
Office Phone

Members

Kat Hadjantonakis, PhD
Kat Hadjantonakis

Chair, Developmental Biology Program, SKI; Alfred P. Sloan Chair

Dun Chen
Dun Chen

Research Technician

Nicole Clerico-Benn
Nicole Clerico-Benn

Assistant to Chair

Alexandre Francou
Alexandre Francou

Senior Research Scientist

Mohamed Gatie
Mohamed Gatie

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

David Godovich
David Godovich

Research Technician

Woon Yung Hur
Woonyung Hur

Postdoctoral Research Fellow - joint with Dr. Eric Siggia at Rockefeller University

Ying-Yi Kuo
Ying-Yi Kuo

Research Assistant

Sonja Nowotschin, PhD
Sonja Nowotschin

Senior Research Scientist

Lucas Schroefl
Lucas Schroefl

Research Assistant

Lab Alumni
Abderhman Abuhashem
Abderhman Abuhashem

Graduate Student

Jerome Artus

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Sophie Balmer
Sophie Balmer

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Evan Bardot
Evan Bardot

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

John Burrowes

Administrative Assistant

Sayali Chowdhary
Sayali Chowdhary

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Lydia Coleman
Lydia Coleman

Administrative Assistant

Anna Ferrer-Vaquer

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Laina Freyer
Laina Freyer

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Vidur Garg
Vidur Garg

Graduate Student

Svetlana Jovanic
Svetlana Jovanic

Postdoctoral Research Scholar - NYSTEM Training Award at the CSCB

Benjamin Gordon
Benjamin Gordon

Research Technician

Meera Gupta
Meera Gupta

Postdoctoral Research Fellow - joint with Dr. Eric Siggia at Rockefeller University

Rocío Hernández-Martínez
Rocío Hernández-Martínez

Senior Research Scientist

Minjung Kang, BS
Minjung Kang

Graduate Student

Xinghua Lou

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Kavya Mehndiratta
Kavya Mehndiratta

Research Technician

Sophie Morgani
Sophie Morgani

Research Fellow - joint with Dr. Jenny Nichols at Cambridge University

Silvia Munoz-Descalzo

Visiting Research Fellow

Ricky Narvaez
Ricky Narvaez

Research Technician

Jonathan Pai
Jonathan Pai

Graduate Student

Yvonne Pao

Research Technician

Anna Piliszek

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Berenika Plusa

Visiting Research Fellow

Maria Pulina

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Nestor Saiz Arenales, PhD
Nestor Saiz Arenales

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Kristy Schmicking

Administrative Assistant

Nadine Schrode
Nadine Schrode

Graduate Research Assistant

Clayton Schwarz
Clayton Schwarz

Research Fellow – joint with Dr. Eric Siggia at Rockefeller University

Claire Simon

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Rowena Turnbull

Research Technician

Manuel Viotti

Graduate Student

Evan Weiner

Research Technician

Tao Wu, PhD
Tao Wu

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Panos Xenopoulos

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


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