Laboratory of the Structure and Function of Living Matter

Research interests

The organization and patterning of cellular ensembles into tissues and organs pose a number of challenging questions which demand an understanding of the structure and properties of what we can refer to as ‘living matter’. The evolutionary process has established two large modules at the heart of the patterning processes: transcription and signal transduction. Our group is interested in understanding the integration of these two modules from the perspective of information processing devices.  The laboratory is organized into three small groups which work together in different but complementary aspects of this problem.

One group studies the way Wnt and Notch signaling organize themselves into a functional module (Wntch) which acts as a 'transistor' in cell fate decisions. At the moment much of this research is focused in Drosophila and makes use of the genetic and cell biological arsenal of this organism to elucidate the modules that connect elements of the two pathways. We are also in the process of extrapolating our observations to Embryonic Stem cells as a much simpler system to analyze the cell biology of the process.

A second group is focused on the role that transcriptional noise plays in development and pattern formation. One of the consequences of the studies on Wntch signaling is the realization that noise, phenotypic variability and heterogeneity in an otherwise genetically homogeneous substrate, is an important substrate for pattern formation and that much of the function of Wntch signaling is to filter the noise and obtain deterministic and reproducible patterns at the cellular scale. These studies make use of embryonic stem cells.

A third group, led by Nicole Gorfinkiel, studies morphogenesis, using the process of dorsal closure in Drosophila as a model system. The objective is to develop biomechanical studies of how cell ensembles beget emergent properties which allow them to adopt the complicated shapes that configure an organism.

A common theme running through the three projects is the belief that there are laws and principles in biology and that our duty is to find them.

4 key publications

1. Sanders, PG, Muñoz-Descalzo, S., Balayo, T., Wirtz, F., Hayward, P. and Martinez Arias A. (2009) Ligand independent traffic of Notch buffers the activity of Armadillo in Drosophila. PLoS Biol. 2009 Aug;7(8):e1000169. Epub 2009 Aug 11

2. Gorfinkiel, N., Blanchard, G., Adams, R. and Martinez Arias, A. (2009) Mechanical constraints pattern cellular behaviour during Dorsal Closure in Drosophila. Development 136, 1889-98

3. Kalmar, T., Lim, C., Hayward, P., Muñoz Descalzo, S., Garcia Ojalvo, J. and Martinez Arias, A. (2009) Regulated fluctuations in Nanog expression mediate cell fate decisions in embryonic stem cells. PLoS Biol 7(7): e1000149. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000149

4. Hayward, P., Kalmar, T. and Martinez Arias, A. (2008) Wnt/Notch signalling and information processing during development. Development 135, 411-424

Page updated 13 January 2010