Martinez-Arias Lab
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
Introduction to the Martinez-Arias Lab
We are based in the Department of Genetics and for a number of years have been pursuing issues of information processing by cells during the development of living organisms. We have focused on Drosophila as a model system (see the Flybase or Fruitfly sites), although recently we have begun to use mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells) as an experimental system to address some fundamental aspects of the functioning of biological systems. Our research concentrates on three issues:
- Wntch : Interactions between signalling pathways
- Stochastic events in cell fate decisions : Generation and control of transcriptional noise in development
- Cell and tissue dynamics during morphogenesis
Each of the three topics is studied by a small team with shared interests. The lab has strong collaborations with Richard Adams and Guy Blanchard (Department of PDN ), Jenny Nichols (Cambridge Centre for Stem Cell Research), Kathryn Lilley (Department of Biochemistry), Nicole Gorfinkiel (Centro Biologia Molecular, Madrid, Spain), Ana Katerina Hadjantonakis (Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, USA) and Jeremy Gunawardena (Department of Systems Biology, Harvard, USA). We also have strong collaborations with physicists and engineers which respond to the increasing need to trascend the data that is generated by classical biological approaches. In particular we have close interactions with Ben Simons and Jochen Guck (The Cavendish Laboratory), Simon Guest (Department of Engineering) and Jordi Garcia Ojalvo (Departament de Fisica I Enginyeria Nuclear Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Terrassa, Spain). We are linked to and very involved with two interdisciplinary initiatives in the University of Cambridge: Physics of Medicine (PoM) and Physics of Living Matter (PLM).
The lab is headed by Alfonso Martinez Arias, Professor of Developmental Mechanick, and supported by Tina Balayo as Chief Research Assistant. The research is funded by the European Research Council (ERC), Human Frontiers Programme (HFSP), the Wellcome Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and the Royal Society.
Current members are Fernando Faunes, Penny Hayward, Pedro Machado, Ana Mateus, Silvia Muñoz, Joaquin de Navascues and Sabine Schamberg as Postdoctoral Research Associates; and Cassie Yu Bian, Fan Cheng, Andy Christophorou, Chea Lim and Jamie Trott as Graduate Students.
The aim of our lab is to share ideas, approaches and above all good questions about Nature, in particular Biology, so that we can enjoy the answers we may find. What one finds interesting is a very personal matter, but we agree with the physicist Freeman Dyson when he said:
‘When something ceases to be mysterious it ceases to be of absorbing interest to scientists. Almost all things scientists think and dream about are mysterious’ ('Infinite in all directions')
Alfonso Martinez-Arias' Group (June 2007)
One of the issues that concerns the lab is how the stochastic nature of the molecular events that underpin biological systems is transformed into deterministic and reproducible patterns. (Click the image to demonstrate)
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