EmbryoPhenomics Research Group

LabEmbryoCam

What? EmbryoPhenomics is a research group at the University of Plymouth developing the next generation of technologies for capturing the dynamic process of embryonic development in aquatic animals. We curate and apply new technology to some of the most pressing challenges in biology.

Who? The EmbryoPhenomics research group is a diverse group of researchers at various stages of their career - from undergraduate to professor. The group was established in 2018 by Dr Tills and stemmed from the increasing application of new technological approaches to studying the process of development. Find out what drives us and meet the scientists behind the research

Why? Biology is amazingly complex and this is most apparent during early development - when animals change spatially and functionally at different temporal scales. Phenomics is the use of high-dimensional-organismal-screening to capture this complexity and it represents a step-change in the way in which we are able to understand how animals work.

How? The morphology, physiology and behaviour of embryos change on a minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day basis. Capturing this dynamic process presents a formidable challenge to scientists. We are responding to this challenge by building a range of automated high-throughput phenomic technologies that enable us to monitor the development of aquatic animals both in the laboratory, but also out in the natural environment.

To reach out to us at EmbryoPhenomics use the links below.

selected publications

Bioimaging and-the future of whole-organismal developmental physiology

Oliver Tills, Ziad Ibbini, and John I. Spicer

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 2024

Abs DOI

While omics has transformed the study of biology, concomitant advances made at the level of the whole organism, i.e. the phenome, have arguably not kept pace with lower levels of biological organisation. In this personal commentary we evaluate the importance of imaging as a means of measuring whole organismal developmental physiology. Image acquisition, while an important process itself, has become secondary to image analysis as a bottleneck to the use of imaging in research. Here, we explore the significant potential for increasingly sophisticated approaches to image analysis, including deep learning, to advance our understanding of how developing animals grow and function. Furthermore, unlike many species-specific methodologies, tools and technologies, we explore how computer vision has the potential to be transferable between species, life stages, experiments and even taxa in which embryonic development can be imaged. We identify what we consider are six of the key challenges and opportunities in the application of computer vision to developmental physiology carried out in our lab, and more generally. We reflect on the tangibility of transferrable computer vision models capable of measuring the integrative physiology of a broad range of developing organisms, and thereby driving the adoption of phenomics for developmental physiology. We are at an exciting time of witnessing the move from computer vision as a replacement for manual observation, or manual image analysis, to it enabling a fundamentally more powerful approach to exploring and understanding the complex biology of developing organisms, the quantification of which has long posed a challenge to researchers.
Salinity does not affect late-stage in-egg embryonic or immediate post-hatch development in an ecologically important land crab species

Lucy M Turner, Katharine A Clayton, Linn Wiberg, and 4 more authors

Journal of Experimental Biology, 2025

Abs DOI

ABSTRACT Environmental drivers such as salinity can impact the timing and duration of developmental events in aquatic early life stages of crustaceans, including terrestrial crabs of the family Gecarcinidae. Low salinity delays larval development in land crabs, but nothing is known about its influence on the crucial late-stage encapsulated embryonic or immediate post-hatch development. Therefore, we exposed fertilised late-stage embryos of the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis) to differing salinities (100%, 75%, 50% or 25% sea water) for 24 h during their spawning period and measured some key developmental and physiological traits. We found no effect of salinity on time of first heartbeat, time of hatching, first in-egg embryonic and post-hatch heart rate, or post-hatch activity duration. These results highlight the importance of considering all early life stages when fully characterising the effects of environmental drivers on crustacean development, including under climate change.