As a developmental biologist, I am interested in how a single cell, the fertilised egg, progressively acquires the form an function of its parents over time by complex gene regulation. My lab is especially interested in the development of organs such as the vertebrate limb and eye and in the ability of some vertebrates to regenerate these organs. We use the South African Clawed frog Xenopus laevis as well as the axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum as model organisms to ask questions about how complex structures are built and rebuilt during embryogenesis and regeneration following injury.
