Self-Organization in Biology: Freiburg Spemann-Mangold Centennial Symposium celebrates 100 years of scientific advances rooted in Hilde Mangold’s and Hans Spemann’s discovery of the gastrula organizer in vertebrate development, published in 1924 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935.

It builds a bridge to today’s molecular and cellular understanding self-organization in developing systems, including signaling centers and tissue organizers, gastrulation, stem cell organoids, morphogen gradients, invertebrate systems, and Evo-Devo.

The Spemann-Mangold gastrula organizer was the first signaling center discovered in vertebrate development and established the concept of embryonic induction: signaling centers induce germlayers, tissue pattern along the embryonic axis, and organ development.

Conference Organizers

Wolfgang Driever, CIBSS,University of Freiburg, Germany

Roberto Mayor, University College London, UK

Edward De Robertis, University of California, USA

Local Organizing Commitee

Martin Blum, University of Hohenheim, Germany

Anne Classen, CIBSS,University of Freiburg, Germany

Peter Walentek, CIBSS,University of Freiburg, Germany​

Invited Speakers

Detlev Arendt

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany

Evolution of self-organization in animal development

Makoto Asashima

University of Tokyo, Japan

Spemann-Mangold organizer and mesodermal induction by Activin

Alexander Aulehla

EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

(tba)

Marianne Bronner

California Institute of Technology, USA

Gene regulatory landscape mediating neural crest identity along the body axis

Edward De Robertis

University of California, USA

The Cell signaling pathways that organize cell differentiation from egg to tailbud

Danelle Devenport

Princeton University, USA

Multicellular self-organization of planar cell polarity

Denis Duboule

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Using pseudo-embryos to enter the neck of the developmental hourglass

Brigitte Galliot

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Organizer formation, organizer maintenance & cellular plasticity in Hydra

Kat Hadjantonakis

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Guts and gastrulation: cellular behaviors driving gut endoderm morphogenesis in the mouse embryo

Richard Harland

University of California, Berkeley, USA

Is the cellular basis for gastrulation a self-organizing process?

Thomas Holstein

Heidelberg University, Germany

The Significance of Ethel Browne's research on Hydra for the organizer concept

Dagmar Iber

ETH Zürich D-BSSE, Switzerland

(tba)

Ray Keller

University of Virginia, USA

The organizer: Organizing the forces that shape the xenopus embryo 

Anna Kicheva

ISTA Vienna, Austria

Growth and patterning of the developing spinal cord

Roberto Mayor 

University College London, UK

Chemo-mechanical signal in embryonic induction

Alfonso Martinez Arias

Universidad Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain

Intrinsic and extrinsic organizers of mammalian body plan: an embryo model perspective 

Kate McDole

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK

Illuminating mechanisms of mammalian morphogenesis: emergence and dynamics of the midline

Anming Meng

Tsinghua University, China

Maternal Erk1/2 is required for organizer and body axis formation via multiple mechanisms in the zebrafish

Mary Mullins

University of Pennsylvania, USA

A novel mechanism of Spemann-Mangold dorsal organizer repression

Christof Niehrs

Institut für Molekulare Biologie gGmbH, Germany

Anti-fgf signaling governs left-right body axis formation

Ángela Nieto

Instituto de Neurociencias CSIC-UMH, Spain

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition in early heart development: from left-right asymmetry to disease susceptibility in adults

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie Tübingen, Germany

Genetics and Development: The organizers of the Drosophila embryo

Stefano Piccolo

University of Padova, Italy

Mechanical forces and their role in organizing cellular neighborhoods

Daniel Rios-Barrera

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Morphogenesis across scales: The role of the ECM in coordinating tissue development during Drosophila embryogenesis 

Adrienne Roeder

Cornell University, USA

Stochasticity and robustness in the morphogenesis of Arabidopsis sepals

Siegfried Roth

University of Cologne, Germany

Neofunctionalization of Toll signaling: the evolution of dorsoventral pattering in Insects

Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado

Stowers Institute for Medical Research, USA

Dissecting the Biological Complexity of Animal Regeneration: The cellular agents of regeneration in planarians

Alexander Schier

University of Basel, Switzerland

Nodal signaling 

Amy E. Shyer

The Rockefeller University, USA

Supracellular organization of morphogenesis 

Lila Solnica-Krezel

Washington University, USA

The roles of BMP signaling in regulating the gastrulation convergence & extension Movements

Claudio Stern

University College of London, UK

Establishment of embryonic polarity in amniotes and the origin of identical twins

Ben Steventon

University of Cambridge, UK

Multi-scale control of pattern regulation during body axis elongation

Yi-Hsien Su

Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Taiwan

Tracing the evolutionary origin of the gastrula organizer-derived notochord in non-chordate deuterostomes

Hiroyuki Takeda

Kyoto Sangyo University

Interpretation of the organizer-mediated BMP gradient in late development – Insights from the spontaneous medaka mutant, Da

Patrick Tam

CMRI, University of Sydney, Australia

Molecular Architecture underpinning the Organization of the Body Plan of Mouse Embryo at Gastrulation

Ulrich Technau

University of Vienna, Austria

Development and Self-organisation of the axis organizer in cnidarians 

Naoto Ueno

National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan

Epithelial cell dynamics feedback to cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion via ZO-1 remodeling 

John Wallingford

University of Texas at Austin, USA

Convergent extension in the Xenopus organizer

Val Wilson

The University of Edinburgh, UK

Organising axial progenitors for a complete head-to-tail axis 

Jennifer Zallen

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

Read more about Jennifer Zallen

Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz

Caltech and University of Cambridge, UK

Embryo models from stem cells: the principles of self-organization