She notes if patterns are experimentally manipulated by adding inhibitors or stimulators to signaling pathways, then the development and structure of tissue should change. Her lab work features fastidiously controlled tampering with the sensitive neural crest cell environment. To incubating neural crest cell cultures are added stimulator and inhibitor drugs that affect pathway molecules and manipulate cell differentiation. The embryos are isolated before the nervous system is formed so pain is not a factor. Under temperature-controlled conditions, neural crest cells migrate from the cultured neural tubes within 24 hours.
Timing is of the essence in preparing for neural crest cell experiments.
What is to become the neural tube begins as an elongated plate. The plate curls to form the embryo's brain and spinal cord. Neural crest cells are massed along the neural tube, poised to begin their journeys. The researcher must catch them before they take to migratory pathways. Working under a dissecting scope and using sharpened needles as knives, the researcher cuts a rectangular block from the neural tube and places it in a petri dish.