Investigating the molecular basis of cellular diversity in the nervous system

In an embryo, the nervous system develops diverse cells types in the brain and spinal cord. How these differences emerge along the anterior-posterior axis remains a major unanswered question. I recently demonstrated that during nervous system development, CDX transcription factors are critical for providing cells with the competence to generate spinal cord. Strikingly, this competence is transient in cells, limiting the production of spinal cord cells to a finite developmental window. The goal of this proposal is to understand how this window is imposed on cells during development, and to explain how CDX activity ensures spinal cord fate by repressing alternative, anterior cell identities. I will investigate how these processes influence cellular diversity throughout the developing nervous system, revealing critical insight into how the mammalian body plan develops. Understanding this process is central to the precise engineering of cells and tissues for use in human disease modelling and regenerative medicine.