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Prof. Dr. Alexander Schier

Department Biozentrum
Profiles & Affiliations

Development and Behavior

Our research focuses on two areas: Vertebrate Development and Behavior. We mostly use zebrafish as a model system because genetic, genomic and imaging approaches can be combined to study complex behaviors and developmental processes in a vertebrate. We are also committed to training the next generation of leaders in biomedical research. More details can be found on our Research page: https://schierlab.biozentrum.unibas.ch

Selected Publications

Lord, Nathan D., Carte, Adam N., Abitua, Philip B., & Schier, Alexander F. (2021). The pattern of nodal morphogen signaling is shaped by co-receptor expression. eLife, 10, 54894. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54894

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Raj, Bushra, Farrell, Jeffrey A., Liu, Jialin, El Kholtei, Jakob, Carte, Adam N., Navajas Acedo, Joaquin, Du, Lucia Y., McKenna, Aaron, Relić, Đorđe, Leslie, Jessica M., & Schier, Alexander F. (2020). Emergence of Neuronal Diversity during Vertebrate Brain Development. Neuron, 108(6), 1058–1074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.023

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Thyme, Summer B., Pieper, Lindsey M., Li, Eric H., Pandey, Shristi, Wang, Yiqun, Morris, Nathan S., Sha, Carrie, Choi, Joo Won, Herrera, Kristian J., Soucy, Edward R., Zimmerman, Steve, Randlett, Owen, Greenwood, Joel, McCarroll, Steven A., & Schier, Alexander F. (2019). Phenotypic Landscape of Schizophrenia-Associated Genes Defines Candidates and Their Shared Functions. Cell, 177(2), 478–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.048

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Farrell, Jeffrey A., Wang, Yiqun, Riesenfeld, Samantha J., Shekhar, Karthik, Regev, Aviv, & Schier, Alexander F. (2018). Single-cell reconstruction of developmental trajectories during zebrafish embryogenesis. Science (New York, N.Y.), 360(6392), 979–+. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar3131

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Selected Projects & Collaborations

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Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing

Research Project  | 1 Project Members

The Schier lab has pioneered the use of zebrafish as a model system. The Schier lab will contribute to all aspects of the project that involve zebrafish and help put all findings in the context of developmental biology. The Schier lab will also contribute to the development of novel approaches for barcode editing and cell type classification, generating a global lineage map of zebrafish, and annotating the resulting trees based on reporters for cell signalling and additional processes. Dr. Schier will have immediate oversight over local fiscal and administrative issues at Harvard. In Aim 1, the Schier lab will develop novel approaches and transgenic lines for barcode editing and cell type classification. We will implement and assess several schemes, including: 1) Temperature-, light- or drug- inducible Cas9 expression (to titrate the editing rate, or to calibrate editing events against absolute time); 2) Limiting either Cas9 expression or guide RNA expression to a defined cell cycle window (to "count" cell divisions); 3) Linking Cas9 and/or guide RNA expression to specific "molecular events", e.g. lineage-specific TFs, morphogens, signal transduction cascades, or metabolic sensors, to record cellular histories. In Aim 2, the Schier lab will generate large-scale lineage trees of zebrafish development. These trees will be generated for multiple developmental time points and biological replicates, and will be richly annotated with end-point data tracks including spatial context and cell type. In Aim 3, the Schier lab will annotate the trees with signalling reporters and additional biological processes.