Developmental Biology

Alison Barth
Work in the Barth laboratory focuses on the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying experience-dependent plasticity of the neocortex, and how this aspect of cortical function changes through development.

Justin Crowley
Using a combination of physiological and anatomical techniques, the Crowley laboratory investigates the mechanisms related to the development of neuronal structure and function in the visual system, as well as the interplay between sensory experience and genetics in the generation of neuronal circuits.

Charles Ettensohn
Researchers in the Ettensohn laboratory study gene regulatory networks, signaling pathways, and morphogenetic cell movements in the early sea urchin embryo, and explore how these processes have evolved among the metazoans.

Veronica Hinman
The Hinman laboratory studies evolution of developmental mechanisms using marine invertebrate embryo and larval models. Of particular interest are gene regulatory networks (GRNs), which are researched to discover essential features of animal development and gain a better understanding of how evolutionary changes are incorporated into developmental programs.

A. Javier López
The López laboratory uses various model systems to understand how splicing of pre-mRNA is regulated in vivo and how alternative splicing influences development and cellular function. Recursive splicing mechanisms and their role in expression of very large transcription units are extensively studied.

Brooke M. McCartney
Research in the McCartney laboratory is aimed at elucidating the relationship between Wnt/Wingless signal transduction and cytoskeletal organization in Drosophila development using the APC family of tumor suppressors as a model.

Jonathan Minden
The Minden laboratory is using proteomics and time-lapse microscopy to study how cells change shape during Drosophila embryogenesis. They are also using the same methods to study early protein changes during developmentally regulated cell death.

Eric Xing
The Xing laboratory developes statistical models and machine learning algorithms for biological network inference and characterization, cis-regulatory module decoding, regulatory evolution modeling, quantitative trait locus mapping, genome polymorphism patterning, and population genetic analysis. He is also applying these quantitative approaches to investigate the mechanisms of breast cancer development and metazoan morphagenesis.