My research is focused on fundamental mechanisms of how cell types emerge and give rise to complex organs in the vertebrate body. I use the vertebrate head as a model to study how interactions between epithelia and mesenchyme pattern the facial skeleton and generate diverse organs. Despite the developmental, clinical, and social relevance of craniofacial defects, we still have an inadequate understanding of the full developmental potential of the neural crest mesenchyme and epithelia. I will leverage powerful genetic, imaging, and lineage tracing tools of zebrafish with single-cell sequencing to investigate a neural crest-derived fibroblast population that may act as a niche for long-term skeletal health, as well as to understand the diversification of the head endoderm and its implications for craniofacial patterning.

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