Elucidating cell non-autonomous factors that are important for coordination of organism-wide growth is critical for understanding human development (Figure-1). Birth defects, some of which are caused by development abnormalities that result from uncoordinated growth, affect ~3% of babies born in United States. Despite our understanding of tissue growth or organogenesis, we surprisingly know very little about how growth is coordinated across multiple systems of an organism. Yet, such coordination of organism-level growth facilitates adaptation to different perturbations. When cell cycle is suppressed specifically in the left back arm during mouse development, the left-right arm symmetry remains unaltered (Roselló-Díez et al. 2018). Similarly, when the growth of one compartment of an embryo is perturbed in Drosophila, the other compartments slow down their growth (Boulan et al. 2019). Our long-term goal in this program is to understand the genetic basis of how growth across different organs and systems of an animal is coordinated as a means to understand genetic causes of uncoordinated body growth.
One of the key questions that we are interested in is: What are the signals that are communicated between different cells, organs and systems of an organism that provide a checkpoint for organismal growth? Towards addressing this question, we are focusing on modulation of ribosome biogenesis as a major regulator of organismal growth.
First year and sophomore students who are interested working with a soil nematode species, C. elegans.
2-3 years
