Developmental Biology of Animals

This course prepares you for being a researcher in the field of developmental biology of animals. Drawing from a range of vertebrate and invertebrate model species, it covers a broad selection of topics from embryology to postnatal development, from evolutionary aspects of development (evo-devo) to regeneration of injured body parts. We specifically focus on learning about fundamental concepts in developmental biology, yet also provide an extensive hands-on-experience (using fish and flatworms as model species), which allows you to learn about important molecular techniques and to design, execute and analyze your own experiments.

• Summarize the characteristics of a range of popular model species

• Understand and explain fundamental processes in embryonic/postnatal development and regeneration (e.g. cell-cell signaling, gene regulation, cell motion, epigenetic modifications)

• Understand how embryonic development is related to micro- and macroevolutionary changes

• Understand and apply important molecular techniques (e.g. DNA extraction, RNA extraction, gene expression (qPCR, ISH)

• Understand how to apply software in research (e.g. extract features from experimental data and perform simulations)

• Design and execute an experiment, collect and analyze data, critically reflect on the results (discussion), and to report the experiment to peers and teachers

• Assignment oral presentation (30%) Two presentations of the laboratory exercises (15% each)
• Written test with open questions (70%)

ZSS06100 Laboratory Safety, ZSS06200 Fieldwork Safety CBI10306 Cell biology; EZO10306 Human and animal biology I; HAP20306 Human and animal biology, part 2

• A manual will be provided through Brightspace. The following textbook is not compulsory, but is suggested as a useful complementary information source: Michael J. Barresi and Scott F. Gilbert (2020). Developmental Biology, 12th edition. Oxford University Press.