Erez Nitzan

PhD student

After completing my B.Sc in biology at the Hebrew University in Givat-Ram, Jerusalem in 2005, I started my MSc studies in the lab of Prof. Chaya Kalcheim in theHebrew University Medical School. In 2007 I started My PhD studies.

I’m interested in unraveling cellular and molecular mechanisms governing Neural Crest cell decisions. Specifically, I try to understand when and how do premigratory Neural Crest progenitors acquire their fate, and when do subsequent neural crest lineages segregate from each other. In a parallel project I am trying to identify the similarities and differences between two melanocytes populations: the Neural Crest-derived ones and the newly discovered, derived from Schwann cell progenitors in peripheral nerves.

I am using both avian and murine embryos as model systems.

Education:

• 2002-2005 - BSc Life Sciences, The Hebrew University
• 2005-2007 - MSc Bio-Medicine, The Hebrew University:
• 2007-date - PhD, Bio-Medicine, The Hebrew University:

Publications:

1. Evidence for a dynamic spatiotemporal fate map and early fate restrictions of premigratory avian neural crest. Krispin S, Nitzan E, Kassem Y, Kalcheim C. Development. 2010 137(4):585-95.

2. The dorsal neural tube: a dynamic setting for cell fate decisions. Krispin S*, Nitzan E*, Kalcheim C. Dev Neurobiol. 2010 70(12):796-812

3. Vertebrate Embryo: Patterning the Neural Crest Lineage. Nitzan E, Kalcheim C. 2011. In: Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (eLS). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Version 3.

4. Neural crest and somitic mesoderm as paradigms to investigate cell fate decisions during development.. Nitzan E and Kalcheim C. Dev Growth Differ. 2013 55(1):60-78

5. A dynamic code of dorsal neural tube genes regulates the segregation between neurogenic and melanogenic neural crest cells. Nitzan E et al. Development. 2013 140(11):2269-79

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