About his PhD project

I’m working on light-sheet microscopy (3D) images of mice during embryonic days 12-14. During this stage, lymphoid tissue inducer (LTi) cells begin to aggregate, to form what will eventually become lymph nodes. We have postulated that the peripheral nervous system (PNS) outgrowth initiates the earliest events in lymph node formation.Indeed, preliminary data already showed that LTi aggregate morphology and cell density is affected in whole-mount stained mouse embryos lacking neuronal subsets. However, precise quantification of these morphological differences has not been performed and the exact relationship of the PNS to this aggregation is poorly understood. I will be combining computer vision work with more mathematically rooted analyses to develop new algorithms to study both the network of LTi cells during lymph node formation, and the sensory neuronal network.