Date: Friday, 1 December 2023

Time: 11.00AM – 12.00PM

Venue: IMCB Seminar Room 03-46, Level 3 Proteos, Biopolis, Singapore 138673 (Physical)

Speaker: Prof. Md. Abdul Mazid, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health

Host: Prof Jonathan Loh, IMCB

 

 

 

Understanding early human embryonic development is crucial for fertility-related disorders, regenerative medicine and in vitro studies. The zygote, formed by the fusion of oocyte and sperm, remains transcriptionally quiescent until the totipotent 8-cell embryo stage when zygotic genome activation occurs. However, limited ethical access, scarce embryos and lack of in vitro models have impeded our understanding of early human embryogenesis and totipotency. Recently, we have established novel methodologies for producing human 8-cell embryo-like cells (8CLCs) from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), closely resembling the 8-cell embryo both transcriptionally and epigenetically. Importantly, 8CLCs efficiently differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic tissues, both in vitro and in vivo. Remarkably, using donor naïve PSCs induced by our method, we have generated live-born chimeric monkeys with germline contributions and produced human kidneys in pigs. Therefore, our approach facilitates studying human early embryogenesis and brings us closer to harnessing the potential of totipotency and pluripotency for rejuvenation.

 

I am MD ABDUL MAZID, originally from Bangladesh, currently serving as an Associate Professor at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, China. My research focuses on investigating human early embryogenesis, particularly zygotic genome activation at the totipotent 8-cell stage, as well as functional cells and organ generation for rejuvenation purposes. I have contributed as a first, co-first and corresponding author to publications in prestigious journals such as “Nature”, “Cell”, “Stem Cell Research” and in “Cell Stem Cell”, “Nature Communications”, “Nucleic Acids Research”, “Science Advances”, “Nature Cell Biology” as co-author. Additionally, I have four patents, two international and two domestic in China. I have secured several grants, including the NSFC, CAS-PIFI and the Foreign Young Talent Project. Throughout my scientific career, I have been recognized with various awards, including the Huangpu District High-Level Talent Award in China, the Foreign Young Talent Award in China, the CAS-PIFI Foreign Expert Award in China, the CAS-TWAS President’s PhD Fellowship in China.