Research stay of Niklas Gampl in Oeiras, Portugal
Niklas Gampl (associated with project A05) spent a research stay at Caren Norden’s lab at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine in Oeiras, Portugal (24.09–31.10.2025).
In his PhD project, he investigates how cellular mechanosensing acts in concert with tissue stiffness to drive neuroepithelial morphogenesis in zebrafish and Xenopus laevis embryos. His work leverages the strengths of each model system: the optical transparency and genetic tractability of developing zebrafish, and the ability to robustly characterize tissue mechanics in Xenopus using atomic force microscopy. By joining forces with Caren Norden at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (Oeiras, Portugal), he collaborated closely with an expert in zebrafish retinal development to bridge these two models.
This collaboration was recently supported by an EBM-funded research stay in Oeiras. During his four-week stay in the Norden group, Niklas replicated a phenotype in zebrafish eye development following a loss of Piezo1-mediated mechanosensing that had previously been observed in Xenopus. Using light-sheet imaging of zebrafish with fluorescently labelled neuronal progenitors, he found that early optic cup morphogenesis was impaired in Piezo1-deficient embryos before retinal layering occurred. He also learned blastula-stage cell transplantation to track mutant cells in a wild-type environment and attended a workshop on image analysis tailored to live-imaging data.
Overall, the stay provided an excellent opportunity to connect with colleagues at the institute and enjoy the warm Portuguese October sun during many hikes. This exchange will continue and further support efforts to understand how mechanics shape morphogenesis through the lens of neuroepithelial development.
Niklas Gampl, A05
