Dr Mel White

Affiliate Senior Research Fellow

School of Biomedical Sciences

Senior Research Fellow

Institute for Molecular Bioscience

+61 7 334 62494

melanie.white@imb.uq.edu.au

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Researcher biography

Dr Melanie White heads the Dynamics of Morphogenesis Lab at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), University of Queensland and is an ARC Future Fellow. She completed a PhD in Neuroscience at University College London followed by postdoctoral research at The University of Edinburgh. During this time Mel engineered viruses to modulate gene expression in the brain to investigate neuronal function and as a therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative disease. Her work was published in Neuron and PNAS, featured in Nature Reviews Neuroscience and received extensive international media coverage (including the BBC and The Guardian).

In 2012 Mel switched fields to apply quantitative imaging in developmental biology. Her work revealed key mechanisms driving the earliest morphogenetic events in mammalian embryogenesis and was published in Cell, Science, Nature Cell Biology, Developmental Cell and Nature Protocols. Her research was featured on the cover of multiple journals including Cell and she was awarded the inaugural American Society for Cell Biology Porter Prize for Research Excellence (2018).

In 2020, Mel joined the IMB where she will combine her passion for neuroscience and developmental biology to investigate the dynamics of neural tube morphogenesis.

Research overview

The brain and the spinal cord control most of the functions of the body and the mind, yet the dynamics of how they first form is poorly understood. Both structures arise from a common precursor, the neural tube, which forms very early in embryonic development. To generate the forces that sculpt and shape the neural tube, changes in cellular architecture must be tightly coordinated in space and time. These morphological rearrangements occur concurrently with biochemical signalling pathways that specify early neural cell fates.

Our research aims to understand how cellular properties and transcriptional regulators interact with mechanical forces in real time to direct vertebrate neural tube formation and neural cell fate specification. We study the dynamics of neural tube formation by applying advanced imaging technologies in transgenic avian models and human stem cell models.

Publications

Book Chapters (3)

Journal Articles (23)

Conference Paper (1)

Book Chapters

Alvarez, Yanina D. and White, Melanie D. (2024). Early human embryo development revealed by static imaging. Textbook of assisted reproductive techniques. (pp. 330-340) edited by David K. Gardner, Ariel Weissman, Colin M. Howles and Zeev Shoham. Boca Raton, FL, United States: CRC Press. doi: 10.1201/9781003268598-31

White, M. D., Bissiere, S., Alvarez, Y. D. and Plachta, N. (2016). Mouse embryo compaction. Mammalian preimplantation development. (pp. 235-58) edited by Melvin L. DePamphilis. Maryland Heights, MO, United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2016.04.005

White, Melanie D. and Plachta, Nicolas (2015). How adhesion forms the early mammalian embryo. Cellular adhesion in development and disease. (pp. 1-17) edited by Alpha S. Yap. Maryland Heights, MO, United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2014.11.022

Journal Articles

Wu, Zhixuan, Shen, Sophie, Mizikovsky, Dalia, Cao, Yuanzhao, Naval-Sanchez, Marina, Tan, Siew Zhuan, Alvarez, Yanina D., Sun, Yuliangzi, Chen, Xiaoli, Zhao, Qiongyi, Kim, Daniel, Yang, Pengyi, Hill, Timothy A., Jones, Alun, Fairlie, David P., Pébay, Alice, Hewitt, Alex W., Tam, Patrick P.L., White, Melanie D., Nefzger, Christian M. and Palpant, Nathan J. (2024). Wnt dose escalation during the exit from pluripotency identifies tranilast as a regulator of cardiac mesoderm. Developmental Cell, 59 (6), 705-722.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.01.019

Sun, Yuliangzi, Shim, Woo Jun, Shen, Sophie, Sinniah, Enakshi, Pham, Duy, Su, Zezhuo, Mizikovsky, Dalia, White, Melanie D., Ho, Joshua W. K., Nguyen, Quan, Bodén, Mikael and Palpant, Nathan J (2023). Inferring cell diversity in single cell data using consortium-scale epigenetic data as a biological anchor for cell identity. Nucleic Acids Research, 51 (11), e62-e62. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkad307

van der Spuy, Marise, Wang, Jian Xiong, Kociszewska, Dagmara and White, Melanie D. (2023). The cellular dynamics of neural tube formation. Biochemical Society Transactions, 51 (1), 343-352. doi: 10.1042/bst20220871

Wang, Jian Xiong and White, Melanie D. (2021). Mechanical forces in avian embryo development. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 120, 133-146. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2021.06.001

White, Melanie D. and Plachta, Nicolas (2020). Specification of the first mammalian cell lineages in vivo and in vitro. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 12 (4) a035634, a035634. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a035634

White, Melanie D., Zenker, Jennifer, Bissiere, Stephanie and Plachta, Nicolas (2018). Instructions for assembling the early mammalian embryo. Developmental Cell, 45 (6), 667-679. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2018.05.013

Zenker, Jennifer, White, Melanie D., Gasnier, Maxime, Alvarez, Yanina D., Lim, Hui Yi Grace, Bissiere, Stephanie, Biro, Maté and Plachta, Nicolas (2018). Expanding actin rings zipper the mouse embryo for blastocyst formation. Cell, 173 (3), 776-791.e17. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.035

White, Melanie D., Zhao, Ziqing W. and Plachta, Nicolas (2018). In vivo imaging of single mammalian cells in development and disease. Trends in molecular medicine, 24 (3), 278-293. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2018.01.003

Zenker, J., White, M. D., Templin, R. M., Parton, R. G., Thorn-Seshold, O., Bissiere, S. and Plachta, N. (2017). A microtubule-organizing center directing intracellular transport in the early mouse embryo. Science, 357 (6354), 925-928. doi: 10.1126/science.aam9335

Zhao, Ziqing Winston, White, Melanie D., Alvarez, Yanina D., Zenker, Jennifer, Bissiere, Stephanie and Plachta, Nicolas (2017). Quantifying transcription factor-DNA binding in single cells in vivo with photoactivatable fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Nature Protocols, 12 (7), 1458-1471. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2017.051

White, Melanie D., Zenker, Jennifer, Bissiere, Stephanie and Plachta, Nicolas (2017). How cells change shape and position in the early mammalian embryo. Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 44, 7-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2016.11.002

Zhao, Ziqing W., White, Melanie D., Bissiere, Stephanie, Levi, Valeria and Plachta, Nicolas (2016). Quantitative imaging of mammalian transcriptional dynamics: from single cells to whole embryos. BMC Biology, 14 (1) 115, 115. doi: 10.1186/s12915-016-0331-9

White, Melanie D., Angiolini, Juan F., Alvarez, Yanina D., Kaur, Gurpreet, Zhao, Ziqing W., Mocskos, Esteban, Bruno, Luciana, Bissiere, Stephanie, Levi, Valeria and Plachta, Nicolas (2016). Long-lived binding of Sox2 to DNA predicts cell fate in the four-cell mouse embryo. Cell, 165 (1), 75-87. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.02.032

Samarage, Chaminda R., White, Melanie D., Álvarez, Yanina D., Fierro-González, Juan Carlos, Henon, Yann, Jesudason, Edwin C., Bissiere, Stephanie, Fouras, Andreas and Plachta, Nicolas (2015). Cortical tension allocates the first inner cells of the mammalian embryo. Developmental Cell, 34 (4) 3367, 435-47. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2015.07.004

Fierro-González, Juan Carlos, White, Melanie D., Silva, Juan Carlos and Plachta, Nicolas (2013). Cadherin-dependent filopodia control preimplantation embryo compaction. Nature Cell Biology, 15 (12), 1424-33. doi: 10.1038/ncb2875

Pastoll, Hugh, White, Melanie and Nolan, Matthew (2012). Preparation of parasagittal slices for the investigation of dorsal-ventral organization of the rodent medial entorhinal cortex. Journal of Visualized Experiments (61) ARTN e3802. doi: 10.3791/3802

White, Melanie D., Milne, Ruth V. J. and Nolan, Matthew F. (2011). A molecular toolbox for rapid generation of viral vectors to up- or down-regulate neuronal gene expression in vivo. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 4, 1-15. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2011.00008

White, Melanie D. and Mallucci, Giovanna R. (2009). RNAi for the treatment of prion disease: a window for intervention in neurodegeneration?. CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets, 8 (5), 342-352. doi: 10.2174/187152709789541934

White, Melanie D. and Mallucci, Giovanna R. (2009). Therapy for prion diseases: insights from the use of RNA interference. Prion, 3 (3), 121-8. doi: 10.4161/pri.3.3.9289

Garden, Derek L. F., Dodson, Paul D., O'Donnell, Cian, White, Melanie D. and Nolan, Matthew F. (2008). Tuning of synaptic integration in the medial entorhinal cortex to the organization of grid cell firing fields. Neuron, 60 (5), 875-89. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.10.044

White, Melanie D., Farmer, Michael, Mirabile, Ilaria, Brandner, Sebastian, Collinge, John and Mallucci, Giovanna R. (2008). Single treatment with RNAi against prion protein rescues early neuronal dysfunction and prolongs survival in mice with prion disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (29), 10238-10243. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0802759105

Mallucci, Giovanna R., White, Melanie D., Farmer, Michael, Dickinson, Andrew, Khatun, Husna, Powell, Andrew D., Brandner, Sebastian, Jefferys, John G. R. and Collinge, John (2007). Targeting cellular prion protein reverses early cognitive deficits and neurophysiological dysfunction in prion-infected mice. Neuron, 53 (3), 325-35. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2007.01.005

Conference Paper

Zenker, J., White, M. D., Templin, R. M., Parton, R. G., Thorn-Seshold, O., Bissiere, S. and Plachta, N. (2017). A Microtubule Organizing Center Directing Intracellular Transport in the Early Mouse Embryo. ASCB/EMBO Meeting, Philadelphia Pa United States, 2-6 December 2017. Bethesda, MD United States: American Society for Cell Biology.