Every few years Carnegie postdoctoral fellows organize a small meeting focused on a topic of exceptional interest in biology. This year, we are pleased to present the 29th Carnegie Symposium on the Journey of the Germ Cell. 

The steps germ cells take to develop into sperm or eggs outlines some of the key developmental pathways that are essential for the propagation of life.  Our symposium will highlight some of the exciting discoveries in the field that have allowed us to understand and appreciate how an undifferentiated cell becomes a gamete.  We have brought together leaders in the field to discuss the biology of germ cells from their specification in the embryo to fertilization and ultimate demise in a diseased state. We hope that our Symposium on the Journey of the Germ Cell will promote interesting discussions on this exceptional topic.

Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1902 as an organization for scientific discovery. The Department of Embryology, founded in 1913 in affiliation with the Anatomy Department of Johns Hopkins University, is one of six departments within the Carnegie Institution of Washington. During the succeeding decades a fundamental description of human development and pathbreaking experimental studies emerged. In 1960, the Department moved from the medical school to the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus at 115 West University Parkway. The move initiated a close relationship with the JHU Department of Biology and bolstered a new research focus on understanding fundamental developmental mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level. Since then, departmental staff have uncovered the role played by genes during embryogenesis, developed widely used experimental methodologies, trained several scientific generations of biologists, and shared with JHU Biology a graduate program and many intellectual ties. In 1987, Embryology Department faculty were first appointed Investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; currently three of eight staff members are so affiliated.

In 2005, the Department moved to its new building, the Maxine F. Singer research building (read transcript of dedication speech), located on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus at 3520 San Martin Drive. During this history, the Department of Embryology has become recognized worldwide as one of the premier research centers in cellular, developmental and genetic biology. The department has a unique atmosphere and research style that have allowed a small enterprise to have a disproportionately large impact on science. We revere this atmosphere as the source of our inspiration and strive to further improve it as the department evolves within the current milieu of intensive activity, investment and opportunity in the biological sciences.