Molecular Biology Institute Seminar Series: Dr. Yiqun Wang

Speaker

Yiqun Wang, Ph.D. 
Postdoctoral Scholar
Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
UC San Diego

Bio

Dr. Wang conducted seminal work on cellular trajectories in zebrafish embryogenesis for her doctoral research with Dr. Alex Schier (including groundbreaking studies published in Science and Developmental Cell). As a senior Postdoctoral scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the lab of Dr. Dede Lyons, Dr. Wang is investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mollusc (snail) embryos use to determine cell fate.

Her focus is on mRNA localization and asymmetric cell division in the species Crepidula, and how those mechanisms can be tweaked over evolutionary time scales. Her work uses a combination of spatial transcriptomics (MERFISH), live imaging, and genome editing.

Dr. Wang has discovered that molluscan embryos rely heavily on localized mRNA for specification of cell fate, more so than found in fly and vertebrate embryos. Dr. Wang also recognized that to make up for the lack of decades’ worth of investigation in these embryos with traditional approaches (e.g., forward screens, studying one gene or one mutant at a time), more high-throughput methods would be necessary.

To this end, she initiated a collaboration with Dr. Bintu’s lab at UC San Diego to adapt MERFISH to whole mount embryos to look at global patterns of mRNA localization.  She also built many necessary tools and reagents to do this, such as assembling a comprehensive developmental transcriptome, and trouble-shooting fixation and clearing methods to make MERFISH possible.

Her work is the first application of spatial transcriptomics to any whole-mount embryo.  Dr. Wang relishes solving technical challenges and seeks out opportunities to collaborate and adapt new technologies to her research questions.  

Location

BioScience Center Gold Auditorium

Zoom

https://sdsu.zoom.us/j/5179709840