Welte and Kilwein crack the code of nutrient segregation

It is well known in developmental biology that a mother’s egg provides abundant nutrients that are essential for an embryo to develop. But does it matter where in the developing embryo the nutrients are stored?

In a series of papers, Michael Welte, a professor in the University of Rochester’s Department of Biology, tackles this question, which falls at the intersection of developmental biology and metabolism. The studies were spearheaded by Marcus Kilwein, a former graduate student in Welte’s lab, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University.