Novel Imaging Approaches for Studying Morphogenesis

The formation of complex tissues during the embryonic development of organisms relies on successive rounds of patterning, in which cells acquire distinct fates and organise into functional structures. Studying patterning processes in the physiological context of a developing organism poses experimental challenges: Deciphering the interplay between molecular morphogen signals and coordinated signal responses in individual cells within a growing, changing tissue architecture requires mapping of molecular gradients over time, as well as imaging of both subcellular signalling events and multicellular patterns across space and time. In this thesis I present novel imaging approaches that are suited to address these challenges.