To summarize - we find that there is an optimal contractile regime for embryos to undergo proper development/implantation. Contractility shifts the proportion of optimal embryos in each maternal condition.

Amazingly, yes! Here, we indexed embryos, calculated compaction metrics, and selected Normal and Accelerated tempo’d embryos for later implantation assays. We find compaction metrics correlate with ultimate implantation potential – for both aged and young maternal conditions.

Well, we also find increased contractility in the aged embryo also correlates with faster compaction at the 8-cell stage. Could this be a possible metric to see which ones will implant?

But contractility tunes cell-cell adhesion (limiting spreading) and cell-substrate adhesion (promoting spreading). Aged embryos show higher blastocyst surface tension AND higher spreading forces via Traction Force Microscopy. Weird… So how can we explain reduced spreading?

Implantation is inherently a mechanical process. We find contractility is necessary and sufficient for spreading behaviors. We can artificially age embryos from young females and even rescue aged embryo spreading just by tuning contractility!

Using mouse embryos, we visualize implantation in vitro to see what’s wrong in embryo development w/ advanced maternal age. In vitro implantation assays show aged embryos do not implant as efficiently.

The “age” of an egg impacts its development. HFEA data on IVF uterine transfers shows live births = rescued if women >35 use donor embryos from women <35. We find this trend = true for aged mice, too! Now we have an experimentally tractable system!

See this? This = implanting mouse embryo. Usually this happens inside its mother and is invisible to us, but we can actually watch implantation ex vivo with the hope of understanding why implantation goes awry in embryos of older women. A 🧵...

🚨 New Manuscript about to drop! 🚨 Stay tuned!

Colossal ain't got nothin on this Dire wolf. So vicious.

Happy #FluorescenceFriday - here is a mouse embryo jiggling into configuration #mechanobiology #epithelialmechanics #devbio

feels like this was a decade ago.... oh wait...

🚨 Quick!! 🚨 Post science videos of things going "bloop"

Not science related at all, but I have this once down my side and now I like to think of it as a potential Postdoc-to-PI story arc 😂

I'm going to ease my way into #FluorescenceFriday... Here is a mouse embryo stained for a membrane-to-cortex attachment protein

How? Here comes my favorite part: we can use synthetic biology 🦾. We can drive cell fates using tools like optogenetics where we control protein localization with light! Here is an embryo expressing a protein that shouldn't be in the nucleus, but then with some light drives nuclear localization 😍

This is an embryo undergoing compaction! *Gasp * Super cool! Turns out this stage is a really important checkpoint both in a mechanical sense but also in specifying cell fates. But can we take videos like the one posted below and see which embryo will most likely produce a pup?

Hi Everyone! 👋 Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kate. I'm a postdoc studying early mammalian development, mechanics, and reproductive aging. Check out one of my favorite developmental stages in a mouse embryo in this video:

🚨 Folks interested in all things Cell/Tissue Polarity🚨 apply for a talk/poster for the GRS on Polarity Signaling! As Chair, I'm organizing a 🔥seminar that is entirely trainee focused. If you've been to a Gordon, you know the awesomeness. If you haven't - apply and find out! Please RT