Research

Embryos are fascinating. When an egg is fertilized, a lot happens. Cells start to divide, change their shapes, form tissues that will grow and bend or fold in different ways until, somehow, a whole animal emerges with all of their organs functional, and in place.

How embryos do that, how they create form and build themselves from a single cell, remains one of the greatest mysteries in biology.

There’s only one bigger question:

How does embryonic development evolve?

My research aims to understand the factors that drive and shape evolutionary change and morphogenetic innovation in the early development of animals.

To achieve this, I use a comparative approach to study cell fate specification, axial patterning, and tissue morphogenesis in embryos of different species using the latest molecular and imaging approaches.

Currently, I’m focused on uncovering the interplay between cell fate, epithelial folding, and mechanical forces, during the evolution of the head–trunk boundary in animals.

For further details, please check my research papers.