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:
- Interactions between signalling pathways
- 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 led by a senior researcher. The lab has strong collaborations with the Department of Biochemistry (Tom Blundell and Kathryn Lilley), the Department of Anatomy (Richard Adams and Guy Blanchard) and the Cambridge Stem Cell Initiative (Jennifer Nichols). Recently we have started some important collaborations with physicists and engineers as a way to trascend the data that is generated by classical biological approaches. In consequence we have close interactions with Clemens Kaminski (Department of Chemical Engineering), 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 and Jessica Allen as Graduate Research Assistant.
Current members are Penny Hayward, Tibor Kalmar, Silvia Muñoz, Nicole Gorfinkiel and Joaquin Navascues as postdoctoral research associates; and Ulla-Maj Fiuza, Ana Mateus, Karolina Lada, Deepti Gupta, Fan Cheng and Chea Lim 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)