Developmental Biology & Evolution of Development

Dr. H. Gert de Couet - the function and evolution of genetic networks responsible for the development and function of the cytoskeleton and neuro-muscular systems of animals.

Dr. Michael Hadfield - the chemosensory mechanisms of marine invertebrates; role of bacterial films in the metamorphasis of pelagic invertebrate larvae; signal-transduction mechanisms in these larvae.

Dr. Tom Humphreys - examining developmental master control genes that specify vertebrate structures in the hemichordate acorn worm, Ptychodera flava, to understand the evolutionary pathways that have lead to the chordates.

Dr. Mark Martindale - the cellular and molecular formation of metameric body plans; the relationship between radially symmetrical and bilaterally symmetrical organisms; the role of the early cleavage program in the segregation of developmental potential in a wide variety of animals which share a mode of embryogenesis known as spiral cleavage.

Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai - establishment and maintenance of animal/bacterial symbioses, specifically the relationship between the Hawaiian sepiolid squid Euprymna scolopes and its luminous bacterial partner Vibrio fischeri, and the effects of the bacteria on the development of the host tissues with which they associate.

Dr. Steven Robinow - genetic and hormonal regulation of nervous system development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, particularly how developmental signals such as hormones, nuclear receptors, trophic factors and synaptic contacts regulate gene expression to control nervous system development and function.

Dr. Athula Wikramanayake - embryonic development from a fertilized egg: the mechanisms by which maternally loaded developmental information is partitioned in a reproducible manner in the early embryo to initiate pattern formation and how these mechanisms are modified during evolution to produce morphological diversity.