Paul Trainor, PhD is an Investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, MO USA with over 20 years of experience working in the fields of developmental biology, neurobiology and craniofacial morphogenesis. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia under the tutelage of Dr Patrick Tam before undertaking post-doctoral training with Dr Robb Krumlauf at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, England. The current emphasis of Dr Trainor's research centres on the role of neural crest cells in craniofacial evolution, development and disease. He seeks to understand the mechanisms that regulate neural crest cell patterning and apply this basic knowledge to decipher the etiology and pathogenesis of birth defects and potentially develop therapeutic avenues for their prevention. His laboratory studies neurocristopathies (disorders of neural crest cell development) such as Treacher Collins syndrome, Holoprosencephaly and Syngnathia as well as other neurocristopathy disorders such as Hirschsprung disease. Dr Trainor is currently vice-present of the Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Development.

Neural Crest Cells 1. Neural Crest Cell Evolution: How and when did a Neural Crest Cell become a Neural Crest Cell William A Muñoz and Paul A Trainor 2. Resolving Time and Space Constraints during Neural Crest Formation and Delamination Jean-Loup Duband, Alwyn Dady and Vincent Fleury 3. Extended Multipotency of Neural Crest Cells and Neural Crest-Derived Cells Tsutomu Motohashi and Takahiro Kunisada 4. The Ciliary Baton: Orchestrating Neural Crest Cell Development Ching-Fang Chang, Elizabeth N. Schock, Aria Attia, Rolf W. Stottmann and Samantha A. Brugmann 5. Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling: Regulating Neural Crest Development One Phosphate at a Time Katherine A. Fantauzzo and Philippe Soriano 6. Neural Crest Cells in Cardiovascular Development Alice Plein, Alessandro Fantin and Christiana Ruhrberg 7. Molecular Control of the Neural Crest and Peripheral Nervous System Development Jason M. Newbern

Placodes 8. Vertebrate Cranial Placodes as Evolutionary Innovations - The Ancestor's Tale Gerhard Schlosser 9. Transcriptional Regulation of Cranial Sensory Placode Development Sally A. Moody and Anthony-Samuel LaMantia 10. Neural Crest and Placode Contributions to Olfactory Development Jun Suzuki and Noriko Osumi 11. Epithelial Morphogenesis: The Mouse Eye as a Model System Bharesh Chauhan, Timothy Plageman and Richard Lang 12. Developing and Regenerating a Sense of Taste Linda A. Barlow and Ophir D. Klein 13. Signaling in Tooth, Hair and Mammary Placodes Youngwook Ahn 14. The Role of Foxi Family Transcription Factors in the Development of the Ear and Jaw Renée K. Edlund, Onur Birol and Andrew K. Groves 15. The Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for the in Vitro Derivation of Cranial Placodes and Neural Crest Cells Bianca E Borchin and Tiziano Barberi

Neural Crest and Placodes provides in-depth coverage of the topic, including information on their critical role in vertebrate development, evolution, and the way defects in their development underlie a wide range of congenital disorders. It delves deep into advances made in our understanding of the mechanisms governing the formation, migration, and differentiation of these two cell populations, also discussing their integration during embryonic development.

The text highlights the application of fundamental knowledge in investigating the etiology and pathogenesis of congenital disorders and the ways the data applies to the field of regenerative medicine.