Odontodes

Born in Guangzhou, China, Dr Donglei Chen has studied and worked at Uppsala University in Sweden for 15 years. She studied for her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Per Ahlberg, focusing on the dentitions of the Silurian (approximately 420 to 425 million years old) osteichthyans Andreolepis and Lophosteus. This research was based on microtomographic data sets with sub-micrometer resolution produced at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, and was the first use of such data to fully reconstruct the three-dimensional architecture of early vertebrate dentitions. She received the Photon Science Award 2018, awarded by the Centre for Photon Science at Uppsala University, for the most innovative use of photon science in a PhD thesis.

Her research has provided profound mechanistic insights allowing her to address evolutionary and developmental questions, such as the origin of teeth in jawed vertebrates, the origin of in situ tooth replacement in bony fish, and the relationship between teeth and dermal odontodes. Based on synchrotron microtomography, she is using three-dimensional virtual histology to reconstruct the ontogenetic histories of early vertebrate dermoskeletons. This three-dimensional 'reverse engineering' of ontogeny allows cell behaviors, such as the spatial regulation of odontoclast and osteoclast activity within the resorption zones, to be inferred in fossils and compared with those of living animals. It opens the door to integrating different strands of cutting-edge research, from developmental genomics to paleohistology, in order to explore current topics about the evolution, development and patterning of teeth.