Gene regulation, cell fate, and the evolution of neural diversity

Our work centers on the insect visual system. In Drosophila, every photoreceptor type is known, along with how its fate is specified during development and how it is wired into the brain. That reference lets us recognize the cell types other insects have added, repurposed, or rearranged over hundreds of millions of years, and find the genetic changes responsible.

Three questions organize the lab. How do the timing and continuity of transcription set the probability and reliability of a cell fate? How do new neuron types and circuits evolve? And how is a retina divided into regions, and what does that do for the animal? We answer these questions with Drosophila genetics, live imaging of transcription, single-cell genomics, CRISPR and transgenesis in house flies, mosquitoes, and butterflies, and, most recently, directed differentiation of human retinal cells.

The lab is part of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at UC San Diego, and we are always glad to hear from prospective students and postdocs.