Martinez-Arias Lab
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
Research
The interests of the group have developed from classical questions about the role that cell signalling plays in the development and patterning of living organisms. For a number of years and focusing on Drosophila as a model system, we have been pursuing issues of how cells become different (cell fate assignment) and how different groups of cells are patterned in space and time (morphogenesis). This work led to our current interests in how signal and gene regulatory networks interact to generate cell fate and behaviour and transform single cells into tissues and organs. We have also acquired new experimental systems in mammalian embryonic stem cells.
Until recently classical approaches to our questions of interest have relied on the use of genetic analysis and specific model systems e.g. the wings or embryos of Drosophila, to study particular aspects of cell fate assignment or the process or dorsal closure of the embryo for the analysis of morphogenesis. In both cases it has become clear to us that cells act as information processing devices composed of interacting functional modules. Much of our work is dedicated to unravelling and analyzing these modules. These studies have led us to endorse the need to find new conceptual and analytical frameworks from which to look at experimental results and also new practical approaches for longstanding biological questions and new ones that continue to emerge. These perspectives inform the three themes of our laboratory, which we pursue through a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches:
1. Interactions between signalling pathways : Wntch signalling
Alfonso Martinez Arias
Silvia Muñoz Descalzo
Penny Hayward
Cassie Yu Bian
Andy Christophrou
Collaborations
Jenny Nichols (Cambridge Centre for Stem Cell Research)
Kat Hadjantonakis (Sloan Kettering, New York, USA)
Kathryn Lilley (Cambridge Centre for Proteomics)
2. Stochastic events in cell fate decisions
Alfonso Martinez Arias
Silvia Muñoz Descalzo
Penny Hayward
Tina Balayo
Jamie Trott
Joaquin de Navascues
Chea Lim
Ana Mateus
Collaborations
Jenny Nichols (Cambridge Centre for Stem Cell Research)
Kat Hadjantonakis (Sloan Kettering, New York, USA)
Jeremy Gunawardena (Systems Biology, Harvard, USA)
Ben Simons (The Cavendish Lab, Cambridge)
Jordi Garcia Ojalvo (Departament de Fisica I Enginyeria Nuclear Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Terrassa, Spain)
3. Tissue morphogenesis
Sabine Schamberg
Pedro Machado
Fan Cheng
Ana Mateus
Collaborations
Nicole Gorfinkiel (Centro Severo Ochoa, Madrid, Spain)
Jochen Guck (The Cavendish Lab, Cambridge)
Simon Guest (Department of Engineering, Cambridge)
Guy Blanchard (PDN, Cambridge)
Richard Adams (PDN, Cambridge)