Regulation and Evolution of Development (RED) lab
Head of the lab: Prof. Smadar Ben-Tabou de-Leon
Lab manager: Dr. Tsvia Gildor
Where genetics and mechanics meet!
We are now recruiting MSc and Ph.D. students! Post-docs are welcome, subject to funding.
We are now recruiting MSc and Ph.D. students! Post-docs are welcome, subject to funding.
Please send your CV and research interests to:
Please send your CV and research interests to:
The instructions for constructing the body plan of multicellular organism is encoded in the genome of the species in the form of developmental regulatory networks. One of the fundamental riddles in biology is how are genomic programs executed during embryogenesis and how do they evolve? Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) consisting of transcription factors and intercellular signaling control cell fate specification, but this information is not sufficient to make organs. To build an organ, the cells must apply mechanical force on their environment, measure its mechanical properties and make local computation of how to proceed (1). This computation must be also encoded in the genome and is part of the regulatory machinery that drives morphogenesis. In our lab, we aim to decipher how genetic and mechanical information are processed and translated into the mechanics of organogenesis? We also investigate how genetic and mechanical information processing changes during evolutionary innovations where the stiffness of the extracellular matrix changes dramatically? e.g. in the evolution of biomineralization (2). To adress these two fundamental question we use the sea urchin larval skeletogenesis as a model.
The instructions for constructing the body plan of multicellular organism is encoded in the genome of the species in the form of developmental regulatory networks. One of the fundamental riddles in biology is how are genomic programs executed during embryogenesis and how do they evolve? Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) consisting of transcription factors and intercellular signaling control cell fate specification, but this information is not sufficient to make organs. To build an organ, the cells must apply mechanical force on their environment, measure its mechanical properties and make local computation of how to proceed (1). This computation must be also encoded in the genome and is part of the regulatory machinery that drives morphogenesis. In our lab, we aim to decipher how genetic and mechanical information are processed and translated into the mechanics of organogenesis? We also investigate how genetic and mechanical information processing changes during evolutionary innovations where the stiffness of the extracellular matrix changes dramatically? e.g. in the evolution of biomineralization (2). To adress these two fundamental question we use the sea urchin larval skeletogenesis as a model.
Our discoveries illuminate the molecular and cellular control system of morphogenetic processes and how these processes evolve.
Our discoveries illuminate the molecular and cellular control system of morphogenetic processes and how these processes evolve.