According to the syllabus of this course, development can be viewed as an "integral" of molecular and cell biological events.
https://www.nig.ac.jp/jimu/soken/courses/devbiol/devbiol2_2016.html

In other words, we can take "differential" of a developmental phenomenon, and reveal molecular and cellular processes (or concepts) that constitute the phenomenon. In this class, we will take up "germ cell determination" as a topic, divide a relevant developmental phenomenon into several processes, and discuss how such a process can be addressed at molecular and cell biological levels.

How germ cell lineage is determined during development is a fundamental question in developmental and reproductive biology. In Dorosophila, this is achieved by maternally inherited cytoplasmic granules called germ plasm (or pole plasm) at the posterior pole in fertilized embryo, so that cells incorporate the granules develop to germ cells. Of the eight previously identified genes essential for the formation of germ plasm, the authors demonstrated that one of them, oskar, directs the assembly of germ plasm. Furthermore, the authors tried to discriminate putative roles of other genes in germ plasm formation.

In this class, we will follow the "differential" the authors took through reading the paper and will discuss the model they provided. We hope you join the discussion on their achievements.