PATTERNING IN DEVELOPMENT
During embryogenesis, cell division is well timed and spatial positioning becomes of paramount importance for successful development. Cell suspensions derived from whole Hydra magnipapillata, fresh water Cnidarians, can form aggregates which subsequently form complete organisms. Hydra have incredible regenerative capacity and are also known to have hold the secrets to immortality. I am interested in probing how cells self organize during the aggregation and regeneration to form functional organisms. . |
SIZE REGULATION My journey began with C.elegans, an organism whose development is so stereotyped that every cell's fate is known. How size is regulated in such a stereotyped system across diverse biological length scales (from organelles to organisms) is important and tractable biological question, especially in the context of growth and development. More recently, I was introduced to planaria. This flatworm exhibits such strong developmental plasticity that a tiny fragment of it's body can be chopped off and the fragment will regenerate into a completely new organism! Moreover, when starved, planaria start to shrink in size ('degrow'), and they can survive for months. This has led us to ask whether similar mechanisms drive size regulation in planaria and C.elegans - organisms that seem to be at opposite ends of the development spectrum. I am also interested in how environment influences biological size at multiple scales (organelle, cell, tissue, organism) during regeneration, during growth/degrowth and during development. |