Ask-a-Researcher session
with Dale Frank, PhD
"Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome: The frog as a model for understanding human embryonic development"
Thursday, February 3, 2022
12:00pm-1:00pm U.S. Eastern Time
Dale Frank, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Join the ARRE Foundation and Dr. Dale Frank for an update on his research on Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome (BRS).
With funding support from the ARRE Foundation, Dr. Frank and his team have developed a frog model that mimics Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome. They are studying the development of these frogs to better understand how the ASXL3 genetic mutation impacts early neural development in humans with Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome.
In his research lab, his team uses a “simplified” vertebrate model system, the frog, Xenopus laevis to understand BRS. Xenopus embryos are large, manipulable and develop outside the body. The female frog lays hundreds of eggs and an abundance of fertilized-eggs/embryos are accessible to manipulation via microinjection and microsurgery for large scale analysis. Embryos develop quickly in a petri dish in simple culture conditions, forming a functional nervous system in less than four days. Most importantly, in Xenopus, we can investigate the earliest stages of neural development that cannot be analyzed in other mammalian vertebrates. In all vertebrate species, nervous system formation and development is quite similar and highly conserved, being regulated by the same gene products, whether you are a frog, mouse or human. Thus the frog is an excellent platform to address ASXL3 protein function in the earliest stages of embryonic neural development. We utilize the frog system to (1) understand the earliest molecular function of ASXL3 protein and its aberrant role in triggering BRS, (2) to recapitulate the disease in the whole animal embryo and (3) to identify brain-head specific target-genes whose expression is modified by the lack of ASXL3 activity in the embryo.
This live video session will be presented in simple scientific terms for families and caregivers.
Session format
This live video presentation will take place on Zoom Meetings. Participants are invited to turn their cameras on for the presentation.
Dr. Frank will take questions from participants at the end of the session.
We will reserve the last 15 minutes for optional family networking in breakout rooms.
Additional reading: