Dr Susie McLaren

My current work investigates the role of pressure and tissue mechanics in sculpting the embryonic central nervous system, using the chicken embryo as a model system. 

I studied Natural Sciences at UCL and earned my PhD at the University of Cambridge with Ben Steventon. During this time I investigated early embryo head-to-tail elongation using the zebrafish embryo as a model system, and found that anterior notochord cell expansion combined with addition of cells to the posterior notochord leads to force generation that facilitates body axis elongation.