Open Questions in Developmental Biology: Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Perspectives (Evolutionary Cell Biology)

This book explores the enduring and emerging questions in developmental biology, offering a comprehensive overview that bridges traditional concepts with the innovative inquiries shaping future research. Each chapter delves into a fundamental unresolved question reflecting the insights of the past and the likely vibrancy of future inquiry. These discussions are followed by reviews of novel areas, including mechanobiology, the role of membrane potentials, and the post-transcriptional control mechanisms guiding fate selection and cell differentiation.

Igor Adameyko is Professor and a Department Chair at the Center for Brain Research of the Medical University of Vienna and a group leader at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Prof. Adameyko is known for the discovery of the multipotency of nerve-associated Schwann cell precursors, a population of neural
crest-derived cells with exceptional plasticity and distribution in the body. His studies introduced a radically new concept for developmental biology in that it defined precursor pools existing in a highly specialized niche that use nerves as conduits to migrate and differentiate through temporally and spatially delineated nerve–Schwann cell communication.

Gerhard Schlosser is Lecturer Above The Bar in the Department of Zoology at the National University of Ireland in Galway. He has received two PhDs – the first in Philosophy from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiberg and the second in Biology from the University of Bremen. After two postdocs – one at the
University of Bremen and another at the University of California in San Diego – he joined the faculty at the National University of Ireland. He’s the author or co-author of dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles.