Mr William Foster

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the cells that go on to become sperm or eggs in the adult organism. During embryonic development, these cells must migrate from a distant location in the embryo to where they are eventually needed, in the gonad. In mammals, the biophysical mechanisms by which this migration occurs are not well understood. The aim of my research is to characterise these mechanisms, as well as study how this process can go wrong leading to PGCs that end up in the wrong place (so-called ectopics). Ectopic PGCs are important since they can go on to form extragonadal germ cell tumours.