Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Primate Embryogenesis, Centre for Trophoblast Research
Sir Henry Dale Fellow
Thorsten Boroviak is accepting applications for PhD students.
Websites:
Research Interests
The founding population of the entire foetus is established at the end of preimplantation development in the epiblast. Implantation is a landmark event where the embryo undergoes major reorganisation. In rodents, the pluripotent epiblast gives rise to a cup-shaped epithelium, the egg-cylinder. However, primate development dramatically diverges from the rodent paradigm: The primate epiblast represents a flat disc and forms an amniotic cavity, specifying extraembryonic amnion directly after implantation. This suggests substantial differences in the epiblast pluripotency network. Moreover, the recent discovery that primates specify germ cells from nascent amnion further highlights the fundamental importance of primate-specific lineage segregation events.
In our lab, we aim to illuminate the cell-fate decision of early primate development by transcriptional and epigenetic profiling of marmoset embryos, in collaboration with the leading primate centres in Germany and Japan. Marmosets represent the least sentient of primates and, importantly, their embryonic development is conserved with human. Our approach entails combined single-cell RNA-seq and bisulfite sequencing as well as comprehensive computational analysis to compile a genome-wide blueprint of primate development.
In parallel to computational approaches, we are establishing authentic embryonic stem cell lines representative of the three lineages of the primate blastocyst: epiblast, hypoblast and trophoblast. Our goal is to assemble these embryonic lineages into three dimensional structures, mimicking the embryo just before implantation. These synthetic embryos will then be plated on endometrial cells and allowed to attach. The advantages of synthetic embryos include maximal experimental flexibility and an unlimited supply for genome-wide functional screens. Modelling early primate postimplantation development in a dish will provide unprecedented insights into embryonic disc and amnion formation, with far-reaching implications for cancer and stem cell biology, germ cell development and treatments for implantation failure.
Collaborators
Erika Sasaki, Central Institute for Experimental Animals, Tokyo, Japan
Ruediger Behr, German Primate Centre, Goettingen, Germany
Wolf Reik, Babraham Institute, Cambridge
Graham Burton, Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge
Margherita Turco, Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge
Jenny Nichols, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge
Austin Smith, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge
Paul Bertone, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge
Sabine Dietmann, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge
Key Publications
Connor R. and Boroviak T, Origin and function of the yolk sac in primate embryogenesis, Nature Communications, 2020
Boroviak T, Stirparo GG, Dietmann S, Hernando-Herraez I, Mohammed H, Reik W, Smith A, Sasaki E, Nichols J, Bertone P, (2018), Single cell transcriptome analysis of human, marmoset and mouse embryos reveals common and divergent features of preimplantation development, Development 2018
Stirparo GG, Boroviak T, Guo G, Nichols J, Smith A, Bertone P (2018), Integrated analysis of single-cell embryo data yields a unified transcriptome signature for the human pre-implantation epiblast, Development 2018
Boroviak T and Nichols J, (2017), Postimplantation development predicts extraembryonic potential of naive pluripotency in primates, Development, 2017
Scognamiglio R, Cabezas-Wallscheid N, Their M, Altamura S, Reyes A, Baumgärtner D, Prendergast A, Carnevalli L, Paleske L, Boroviak T, Wörsdörfer P, Essers M, Eisenman R, Edenhofer F, Bertone P, Huber W, Hoeven F, Smith A and Trumpp A, Myc Depletion Induces a Pluripotent Dormant State Mimicking Diapause, Cell, 2016
Boroviak T*, Loos R*, Lombard P, Behr R, Sasaki E, Nichols J, Smith A and Bertone P, (2015), Lineage-specific profiling delineates the emergence and progression of naïve pluripotency in mammalian embryogenesis, Developmental Cell, 2015
Boroviak T. and Nichols J, (2015), Maximising clonal embryonic stem cell derivation by ERK pathway inhibition, Methods in Molecular Biology, 2015
Boroviak T. and Nichols J, (2014), The birth of embryonic pluripotency, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society 2014
Boroviak T, Loos R, Bertone P, Smith A and Nichols J, The ability of inner cell mass cells to self-renew as embryonic stem cells is acquired upon epiblast specification, Nature Cell Biology 2014
Tatsumoto S, Adati N, Tohtoki Y, Sakaki Y, Boroviak T, Habu S, Okano H, Suemizu H, Sasaki E and Satake M, (2013), Development and characterization of cDNA resources for the common marmoset: one of the experimental primate models, DNA Res. 2013
Boroviak T. and Rashbass P, (2010), The Apical Polarity Determinant Crumbs 2 is a Novel Regulator of Embryonic Stem Cell Derived Neural Progenitors, Stem Cells 2010
Reitinger S, Boroviak T, Laschober GT, Fehrer C, Muellegger J, Lindner H, Lepperdinger G, (2008), High-yield recombinant expression of the extremophile enzyme, bee hyaluronidase in Pichia pastoris, Protein Expr Purif. 2008
