Patterning and Morphogenesis

Our group is interested in several aspects of vertebrate embryonic development. The ultimate goal of our research is to understand the molecular mechanisms that translate patterning information into morphogenetic processes during formation of the vertebrate embryo. More recently, we have also become interested in the role that those processes played in the evolution of the vertebrate body plan. In general, most of our work uses the mouse as the model system, and our approaches have a main focus on in vivo functional analyses, but we are incorporating other model systems to our approaches, mostly as a consequence of the recent Evo-Devo twist in our research. Some of the active projects in the laboratory are outlined below.