CTD/CRG
Centre for Genomic Regulation
The development of a fertilised egg into an embryo is a dynamic process in which cellular building blocks organise into functional tissues. Mechanical forces shape the body plan of the embryo and control molecular dynamics, cell behaviour and global tissue rearrangements.
In our lab, we are interested in studying mechanisms of multicellular self-organisation, shape formation and developmental robustness in early development. We investigate how cellular morphodynamics and collective migration behaviour are regulated during tissue formation and how mechanosensitive processes control cytoskeletal, cellular and tissue-scale dynamics. We further study cell and tissue functions involved in error compensation and the regulation of stress conditions that guarantee developmental robustness and embryo survival.
Our team follows an interdisciplinary approach combining molecular, cell biological and biophysical tools with advanced live cell fluorescence microscopy. We use Zebrafish as an in vivo model system and develop biomimetic 3D in vitro culture assays that allow for reconstituting embryonic cell and tissue dynamics from bottom-up principles. Working at the interface of physics and biology, our overall aim is to establish mechanistic models of single cell and multicellular dynamics underlying tissue formation and developmental robustness in early embryogenesis.
