Iftach Nachman is a principal investigator at Tel Aviv University, in the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics. Iftach started his studies at Tel Aviv University (BSc in physics and CS) and then moved to the Hebrew U. for his PhD studies. He then performed his postdoctoral training at Harvard and at the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA), working on a developmental switch model in yeast and on reprogramming to iPSC. In October 2009, Iftach moved to Tel Aviv University as an independent investigator. His lab studies cell fate decisions and patterning in mammalian early development in-vitro models. These include mesendoderm onset and early symmetry breaking, segregation of definitive endoderm, and pre-somitic mesoderm patterning. The main models employed in the lab are mouse-derived embryoid bodies, gastruloids, and mesodermal organoids.
Contributions to the project
Within the SUMO project, the Nachman lab will work towards forming reproducible gut- and heart-tube mouse gastruloids. To this end, they will characterize the spectrum of different gut and heart morpho-types obtained in gastruloid differentiation protocols. They will then employ machine learning to predict the morpho-type outcome from gastruloid-specific dynamical history. Finally, they will design both global as well as gastruloid-“personalized” interventions to control morpho-type variability and enrich for the desired morphologies. These interventions will be integrated into a closed-loop system that will automatically control gastruloid variability.
Different gut morphologies obtained in the gastruloid model.
