• Prof Suzannah Williams, Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, UK
• Prof Paul Trainor, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, US
• Prof Thom Sanger, Loyola University Chicago, US
• Prof Florian Hollfelder, University of Cambridge, UK
• Dr Bonnie K Kircher, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas (MD Anderson)

We are always interested in people who would like to work with us (PostDocs) and study with us (DPhil, MSc, ERASMUS, summer students). Please contact Dr Weberling by email.

Dr Weberling (BSc & MSc Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) was awarded a PhD Fellowship of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Horizon 2020 International Training Network ImageInLife to complete her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, focussing on mouse and human embryogenesis at peri- and early post-implantation stages.

Following her PhD, Dr Weberling was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, to build up her independent research. She focusses on understanding early embryogenesis of non- or emerging model organisms of the amniote phylum. Gaining knowledge of  embryogenesis in the different families across the amniote phylogenetic tree will enable to carry out cross-species comparative studies to understand the degree of conservation of key developmental processes.

She is currently hosted in the group of Prof Suzannah Williams.

Reptiles

Reptiles comprise about 23,000 species and exhibit an incredible range of morphological and ecological adaptations, the basis of which is established during embryogenesis, but remains severely understudied. In our lab, we aim to understand the morphogenetic events that drive early development across the major reptile clades.

Early Development of the Brown Anole (A. sagrei)

The squamate genus Anolis has become a model clade for adaptive radiation since the mid-20^th century. With about 400 individual species found across the Caribbean, Central and South America, Anolis provides a unique model to study the genomic bases of species diversity. The pre-oviposition period of the brown anole (A. sagrei) that spans from fertilisation to limb-bud formation stages has not been studied while the post-oviposition stages have been described. Through our research, we provide a staging series that defines 26 distinct stages of pre-oviposition development. We could observe that peri-gastrulation morphogenesis up to the initiation of neurulation exhibits striking differences to chicken embryo development, which is commonly used as model for avian and non-avian reptile embryogenesis (Weberling et al., biorxiv 2024). We are now aiming to shed light into the signalling pathway dynamics that are underlying these morphogenetic events. This work is carried out in collaboration with Prof Thom Sanger, Loyola University Chicago, and Prof Paul Trainor, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City.

Early Development of the Veiled Chameleon (C. calyptratus)

Together with Prof Paul Trainor, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, we are focussing on the early embryogenesis of the veiled chameleon.