About
Editors and people

Editors for Developmental Biology

We aim to review research in the field of developmental biology, in both traditional organisms and arising model systems. We particularly encourage studies that advance a mechanistic understanding of important events in embryogenesis, ranging from cell migration, proliferation and differentiation, regeneration, and inductive and signaling interactions, as well as work at the intersection between developmental biology and evolution. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Type

Senior editors

Sofia J Araújo

University of Barcelona, Spain

Sofia J Araújo is Associate Professor in Genetics, at the Department of Genetics Microbiology and Statistics, University of Barcelona, where she leads the genetics of cell behaviour research group. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London and did postdoctoral training at King’s College London and IBMB-CSIC in Barcelona. Her research at the University of Barcelona is centered in cell migration and branching morphogenesis, with the aim of understanding how branched organs develop and contribute to living organism homeostasis as well as the ageing process. She is currently head of the Genetics section of the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, and board member of the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology. She also holds a Diploma in Science Communication from Birkbeck College, London, and has extensive experience in teaching, communication, and training of scientists on better ways of bringing science to the public.

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
neurodevelopment
DNA repair
single-cell branching
cell migration
tubulogenesis
organogenesis

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster

Competing interests statement
Sofia J Araújo's research is currently funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR).
Utpal Banerjee

University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Utpal Banerjee is the Irving and Jean Stone Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a joint appointment in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He also serves as Co-Director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and as Director of the UCLA Interdepartmental Minor in Biomedical Research. He is a member of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and is affiliated with the Brain Research Institute and the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Banerjee’s laboratory has worked on several oncogenic and metabolic signals that are important in development and disease. The lab studies the effects of systemic signals on the maintenance of blood progenitors in Drosophila, and the role of metabolic pathways in the control of proliferation and differentiation in the preimplantation mouse embryo.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
Cancer Biology

Research focus
haematopoiesis
cancer biology

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
mouse
Albert Cardona

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Albert Cardona is a programme leader at the MRC LMB and a professor of neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. Formerly a group leader at HHMI Janelia and at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich. Trained in biology with emphasis in genetics, development and evolution, a passion and need for image processing of bioimagery led to co-founding the Fiji open source software, as well as the TrakEM2 and CATMAID softwares for image registration, segmentation, visualization and the

analysis of neural circuits. His laboratory studies how the structure of a neural circuit relates to its function. Albert's core expertise is in reconstructing neuronal anatomy and synaptic circuits – the connectome – of small animal brains using volume electron microscopy, to then analyse the circuit architecture and formulate computational models of circuit function that capture the neural dynamics and explain how circuits implement behaviour.

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology

Research focus
neuroscience
image processing
development
neural evolution

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
squids
Amphioxus
lizards

Competing interests statement
Albert Cardona receives funding from the MRC LMB and from the Wellcome Trust. He has served as editor of Open Biology and as Reviewing Editor for eLife.
Kathryn Cheah

The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR China

Kathryn Cheah is a developmental geneticist and Jimmy & Emily Tang Professor in Molecular Genetics and Chair Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong. She received her BSc Hons degree in Biology from the University of London and PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University, U.K. After postdoctoral training at the University of Manchester and Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the UK, she joined the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on using functional genomics and mouse models to understand gene function and regulation, the associated gene regulatory networks and mechanisms of disease, with a focus on skeletal and inner ear development, congenital and common skeletal disorders. Notable contributions are the identification of SOX2 as essential for prosensory development in the inner ear, SOX9 as a key regulator of COL2A1 and the cartilage gene regulatory network, a lineage continuum for cartilage and bone cells and a causative mechanistic link between endoplasmic reticulum stress and skeletal disorders. She is an elected Fellow of the Global Science Academy, The World Academy Sciences (TWAS).

She was the founding President of the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology and the Hong Kong representative for the Asia-Pacific Developmental Biology Network and the International Society of Developmental Biology (2004-2013), elected President of the International Society for Matrix Biology (2006-2008), Senior External Fellow of the University of Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (2011-2012) and elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Differentiation (2012-2018).

She brings editorial expertise to eLife having previously served as Associate Editor for Genesis, guest Associate Editor for PLOS Genetics, Asian Editor for Development Growth & Differentiation (2015-2016), editorial board member of Matrix Biology, BioEssays, Annual Reviews of Genomics & Human Genetics, and as Reviewing Editor of eLife.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
gene regulation and development
inherited and degenerative skeletal disorder
inner ear
matrix biology

Experimental organism
mouse
human

Competing interests statement
Kathryn Cheah receives research funding from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and the Hong Kong Health and Medical Research Fund. She is serving as a member of Hong Kong’s University Grants Council Biology Panel for the Research Assessment Exercise 2020. She currently also serves on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports, Genesis and Journal of Orthopaedic Research. She is also serving on the Hong Kong Advisory Board of the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) and the GRC Conference Evaluation Committee.
Claude Desplan

New York University, United States

Claude Desplan, DSc, PhD is a Silver Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at NYU and an Affiliate Professor at the CGSB at NYU in Abu Dhabi. Dr. Desplan was born in Algeria and was trained at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in St. Cloud, France. He received his DSc at INSERM in Paris in 1983 working with M.S. Moukhtar and M. Thomasset on calcium regulation. He joined Pat O’Farrell at UCSF as a postdoc where he demonstrated that the homeodomain, a conserved signature of many developmental genes, is a DNA binding motif. In 1987, he joined the Faculty of Rockefeller University as an HHMI Assistant/Associate Investigator to pursue structural studies of the homeodomain and the evolution of axis formation.

In 1999, Dr. Desplan joined NYU where he investigates the generation of neural diversity using the Drosophila visual system. His team has described the molecular mechanisms that pattern the eye and showed how stochastic decisions contribute to the diversification of photoreceptors. It also investigates the development and function of the optic lobes where neuronal diversity is generated by spatio-temporal patterning of neuroblasts, a mechanism that also applies to cortical development in mammals. Recently, his lab has also provided a functional understanding of the neuronal and computational mechanisms underlying motion detection.

His laboratory also uses ‘evo-devo’ approaches to understand the mechanisms by which sensory systems adapt to different ecological conditions, from flies to ants to butterflies.

Dr. Desplan serves on multiple scientific advisory boards and committees for funding agencies. He is an elected member of the AAAS, of EMBO, the New York Academy of Sciences as well as the US National Academy of Sciences.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
development neurobiology
evo-devo
vision
stochasticity in development
rhodopsin
aging and caste determination (ants)

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
ants
insects
butterflies
wasps
flies

Competing interests statement
Dr. Desplan has been a member of the Board of Reviewing Editor for Science for the last 10 years (non-renumerated). He is an academic editor for PLOS Biology and PLOS Genetics (non-renumerated). Dr. Desplan occasionally serves as academic editor for other scientific journals (e.g. PNAS). He is a consultant for the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Al Ain, UAE. Dr. Desplan receives funding from the NIH and the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Genomics and Systems Biology.
Michael B Eisen

HHMI, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Michael Eisen majored in math as an undergraduate at Harvard, exploiting the department’s lack of interest in what students did outside of the field to pursue his true love of ecology and evolutionary biology. Trying to unite his quantitative side with his interest in biology, he entered the Harvard Graduate Program in Biophysics, completing his PhD with Don Wiley, using X-ray crystallography to study the evolution of influenza virus proteins.

After a stint as the play-by-play voice of the Columbia (Tennessee) Mules Professional Baseball Club, he joined the labs of Pat Brown and David Botstein at Stanford at the dawn of the era of functional genomics, where he played multiple roles in the development of DNA microarrays as a tool for studying biology. His most notable contribution was a 1998 paper showing how clustering methods can reveal underlying biological structure in genomic data that helped to establish many analytical paradigms in genomics.

He began his independent career at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, before moving to the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. In addition to the main focus of his lab – using experimental, computational and evolutionary methods to study spatial patterns of gene regulation in the early Drosophila embryo – he has a longstanding interest in understanding the molecular basis for the varied microorganisms that have evolved to manipulate animal behavior.

Outside of the lab, he has been a fervent and occasionally strident advocate for opening up the system of scholarly publishing, founding, along with Brown and Harold Varmus, the Public Library of Science (PLOS). More recently he has dabbled in politics and serves as an advisor to Impossible Foods, a company Brown started to create plant-based meats to end the planetary scourge of animal farming.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
development
genomics
embryogenesis
computational biology

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster

Competing interests statement
Impossible Foods: I am an advisor to Impossible Foods, a company founded by my former postdoctoral advisor Patrick Brown, to develop plant-based alternatives to foods derived from animal projects. I got involved in the company because animal farming has a massively negative effect on the planet, and because I believe we can reduce this negative impact by offering consumers products that satisfy their desire for meat, cheese and other dairy products that have less of an impact on the environment. I spend time on the company because I believe deeply in its mission, but I also receive a small stipend for my work and own equity. 23andMe: I used to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of 23andMe, a company that provides consumers with information on their DNA through genotyping and through a website that offers information on ancestry and ties the unique collection of DNA variants they contain to the emerging scientific literature on the effect of these mutation. I do not hold any equity in the company, but I support their mission and my long affiliation with them may constitute a conflict of interest. Public Library of Science: For 20 years I have been a public advocate for reforming the way scientists communicate, and much of my work in this domain focused on the Public Library of Science, a non-profit publisher of open-access scientific and medical journals on whose board of directors I served from 2002–18. My work for PLOS was strictly on a volunteer basis: at no point did I receive any compensation from the company for my role. Despite having no financial interest in PLOS, I have put a huge amount of blood, sweat and tears into the company. I believe fervently in its mission and have an obvious personal stake in its success, even though I am no longer affiliated with them. Science funding: As a working scientist who has received grants from a variety of government funding agencies, I have a professional interest in promoting science funding and in influencing the way research funds are distributed. Anyone who follows me knows that I speak my mind freely on the NIH and other funding agencies and their problems, but I will admit that I used to pull my punches occasionally for fear that it would influence my prospects of funding. I currently receive virtually all of my lab’s funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and thus I clearly have a professional conflict when talking about HHMI. Institutional: I work at the University of California, Berkeley, and have an institutional conflict of interest on anything dealing with UCB, with the University of California writ large, educational funding in California, and, arguably, public higher education policy at the national and state level. I also have a conflict of interest when talking about areas where UC, UCB or my department (Molecular and Cell Biology) have a financial interest, especially on patents. This is currently most relevant in regards to the patent interference case being contested by Berkeley, MIT and others over CRISPR technology. (Modified from “My Conflicts of Interest” at michaeleisen.org/blog.)
Jürgen Kleine-Vehn

University of Freiburg, Germany

Jürgen is a Professor at the University of Freiburg. He obtained his PhD for his work on plant cell polarity at the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) at the Ghent University. He has been an Associate Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna and is now full Professor and chair of Molecular Plant Physiology (MoPP) at the University of Freiburg. He works at the interface of quantitative plant cell biology and developmental plant genetics, addressing plant growth control at a subcellular to organ scale.

Expertise
Plant Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
plant hormones
growth control
plant architecture

Competing interests statement
Jürgen Kleine-Vehn has received and profited from funding by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), the European Research Council (ERC), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and the German Research Foundation (DFG). He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Molecular Science and on the advisory board of Review Commons (operated by EMBO). He has been an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Young Curia).
Lois Smith

Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston, United States

Lois EH Smith MD, PhD is an ophthalmologist and clinician/scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. Her basic research work is in retinal neovascularization, both basic mechanism and treatment including diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

She has a long standing interest in eye diseases particularly retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy, and AMD and in the mechanisms behind these diseases, particularly the underlying causes of neovascularization and the interactions between neurons and vessels. Many pathways that they have found have been translated into clinical trials, including replacement of IGF-1 in preterm infants and treatment of AMD with anti-VEGF antibodies in which they were the first to show the benefit of blocking VEGF in a mouse model of retinopathy. More recently Dr Smith's work has been interested in metabolic function in photoreceptors, particularly with respect to lipids. Photoreceptor metabolic dysfunction causes central vision loss in retinal degenerative diseases (including ROP) but is also implicated in age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Dr Smith is the recipient of the Friedenwald award, the Alcon Research Institute award, the Silverman award, and the Bressler Prize.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Medicine
Neuroscience

Research focus
age-related macular degeneration
diabetic eye disease
retinopathy
ocular disease
developmental neuroscience

Competing interests statement
Dr Smith has received funding from the National Eye Institute, Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund, the European Union, the Lowy Medical Research Institute, Foundation Fighting Blindness, Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Investigator Award, and the Alcon Award.Current editor roles include: Editor for Ophthalmology (Science), Editor for Journal of Clinical Ophthalmology, and Editor IOVS (Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science).
Didier Stainier

Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany

Didier Stainier is the director of the Department of Developmental Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim (Frankfurt), Germany. He studied Biology in Wales, Belgium and the USA (Brandeis University) where he got a BA in 1984. He then received his PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Harvard University (1990) where he investigated the cellular basis of axon guidance and target recognition in the developing mouse brain with Wally Gilbert. After a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellowship with Mark Fishman at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), where he initiated the studies on zebrafish cardiac development, he set up his lab at the University of California, San Francisco in 1995, where he expanded his research to investigate questions of cell differentiation, tissue morphogenesis, organ homeostasis and function, as well as organ regeneration, in the zebrafish cardiovascular system and endodermal organs. In 2012, he moved to the Max Planck Institute where he continues to utilize both forward and reverse genetic approaches to investigate cellular and molecular mechanisms of developmental processes during vertebrate organ formation, in both zebrafish and mouse. He is also an Honorary Professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt. In addition to research and mentorship awards at UCSF, he was a Packard Fellow, Basil O’Connor scholar, established Investigator of the American Heart Association, received the American Association of Anatomists Harland Mossman Award in Developmental Biology, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Academia Europaea and European Molecular Biology Organization, as well as an Officier de l’ordre de Léopold de Belgique.

Expertise
Developmental Biology

Research focus
developmental genetics
organogenesis
tissue morphogenesis
organ homeostasis

Experimental organism
zebrafish
mouse

Competing interests statement
Didier Stainier has received funding from the Max Planck Society, the European Research Council, the National Institutes of Health, the Packard Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the American Heart Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Leducq Foundation among others. In addition to being a Senior Editor for eLife, he currently serves as a Managing Editor for Mechanisms of Development, is on the editorial board of Development and FEBS letters, and is an International Strategic Advisor for the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Japan. He previously served as a Section Editor for BMC Developmental Biology and was the founding chair of the Dev1 study section of the National Institutes of Health.
K VijayRaghavan

National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India

Vijay’s research aims to understand motor- and olfactory- circuit assembly: from deciphering how each component is made, interacts, and stabilises into functioning in the animal to allow behaviour in the real world. Related to the development of network function is its maintenance in the mature animal; another aspect of the work in the laboratory addresses how mature neurons and muscles are maintained. The laboratory uses a genetic approach, mainly using the fruit fly but also collaborating with those using mouse and cell-culture. VijayRaghavan is Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Science and Technology in the Department of Biotechnology. He temporarily holds additional charge of the Department of Biotechnology. VijayRaghavan’s research continues at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bangalore, India, where he is Distinguished Professor. He studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. His doctoral work was at TIFR, Mumbai and postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology. VijayRaghavan is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Associate of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Neuroscience

Research focus
genetics and genomics
developmental biology
neurogenetics
neurobiology
genetic basis of behavior

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
human
mouse

Competing interests statement
K VijayRaghavan currently receives research support from the Indo–French research agency CEFIPRA, and core support from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Previous support was from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), CEFIPRA, the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). VijayRaghavan serves on the Board of Governors of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the HHMI, Chair of the Research Council of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, and Member of the Governing Council of the National Institute of Immunology. He is Associate Editor of BMC Developmental Biology, and a member of the editorial boards of Development, Seminars in Developmental Biology, and Bioconcepts. He is Chair of the Board of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), a not-for-profit company of the National Centre for Biological Sciences and the stem cell institute, inStem, created to manage platform technologies and for technology transfer on the NCBS–inStem campus. He is a member of the board of the Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children, a not-for-profit school for disabled children in Chennai, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Human Frontier Science Program.
Richard M White

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Richard White, M.D., Ph.D, is a physician-scientist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College. He is interested in basic mechanisms underlying metastasis, using the zebrafish as a model system. His work has established numerous techniques for cancer modeling and high-resolution imaging in the fish. Using these tools, the lab is focused on the cross-talk between tumor cells and the microenvironment, and how this interplay influences metastatic success. His work has revealed novel interactions between melanoma cells and adipocytes in the microenvironment, and how neural crest programs play roles in melanoma progression. He has been awarded the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Pershing Square Foundation Award, and the Mark Foundation ASPIRE award.

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Medicine

Research focus
development
neural crest
zebrafish
cancer
melanoma
metastasis
microenvironment

Experimental organism
zebrafish

Competing interests statement
Richard White receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Pershing Square Sohn Foundation, the Mark Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the American Cancer Society and the Harry J. Lloyd Foundation. He receives consulting fees from N-of-One, Inc.

Reviewing editors

Cynthia L Andoniadou

King's College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Medicine
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
stem cells
endocrine
pituitary gland
adrenal gland
paracrine signalling
tumours

Experimental organism
human
mouse
H. Efsun Arda

National Cancer Institute, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
pancreas
single-cell
enhancers
chromatin
Erika A Bach

New York University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
stem cell self-renewal
stem cell differentiation
cell competition
stem cell competition
transdifferentiation
stem cell aging
sex determination

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Michel Bagnat

Duke University, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
morphogenesis
tubulogenesis
notochord
spine
gut
epithelial
polarity

Experimental organism
zebrafish
mouse
Muthuswamy Balasubramanyam

ICMR Emeritus Scientist, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, India

Expertise
Medicine
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Epidemiology and Global Health
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation
Neuroscience
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
disease biology
diabetes
aging
omnics
calcium signaling
endocrine disruptors
probiotics
molecular medicine
Victoria L Bautch

University of North Carolina, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
growth and interactions of cells
blood vessel formation
Patrícia Beldade

University of Lisbon, Portugal

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Developmental Biology
Ecology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
eco-evo-devo
phenotypic variation
developmental plasticity
pigmentation patterns
evolutionary novelty
genetics of diversification
butterfly wing patterns
Hugo J Bellen

Baylor College of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
neurobiology
human neurological disease
Alzheimer's disease
Parkinson's disease
diagnosis of human genetic diseases
fly technology
CRIMIC
MiMIC

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
mouse
Dominique Bergmann

Stanford University, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Plant Biology

Research focus
asymmetric division
cell fate
stomata
cell polarity

Experimental organism
A. thaliana
Brachypodium
Anita Bhattacharyya

University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
neural development
neurodevelopmental disorders
neurogenesis
iPSCs
Down syndrome
intellectual disability

Experimental organism
human
Joshua Brickman

Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem), Denmark

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
embryonic stem cells
endoderm
pluripotency
lineage priming
transcription factors

Experimental organism
mouse
Xenopus
Caroline E Burns

Boston Children's Hospital, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
cardiopharyngeal
cardiovascular disease modeling
cardiac development
cardiac function
cardiovascular regeneration
cardiomyocyte proliferation

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Michael Buszczak

UT Southwestern Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
stem cells
germ cells
ribosomes
mRNA translation
chromatin
DNA damage
meiosis

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
human
Xin Chen

Johns Hopkins University, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
germ cells
stem cells
asymmetric cell division
histones
epigenetics
transcription

Experimental organism
C. elegans
D. melanogaster
Ariel Chipman

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
segmentation
Cambrian explosion
evo-devo
body plan evolution
head evolution
molting

Experimental organism
arthropods
Luisa Cochella

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
microRNAs
transcription factors
chromatin
cell diversification
Graeme W Davis

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
neurodegeneration
neural development
synaptic transmission
plasticity

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Filippo Del Bene

Institut de la Vision, France

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
zebrafish
visual system
optogenetics
neural circuits
behavior
brain function
genome editing
Danelle Devenport

Princeton University, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
cell polarity
planar cell polarity
epidermis
skin
oriented cell divisions
morphogenesis
epithelia

Experimental organism
mammals
Chris Q Doe

HHMI, University of Oregon, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
Drosophila
neural development
neural circuit formation
neural stem cells

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
C. elegans
Stephen C Ekker

Mayo Clinic, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
gene editing
morpholinos
transposons
mitochondria
health engineering

Experimental organism
zebrafish
John Ewer

Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Genetics and Genomics
Medicine

Research focus
animal behaviour
neuropeptides
circadian clocks
insect endocrinology

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Vilaiwan M Fernandes

University College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Cell Biology

Research focus
glial biology
glia-neuron interactions
developmental neurobiology
visual system
inter-cellular signalling
retinotopy

Experimental organism
drosophila
Joseph G Gleeson

The Rockefeller University, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology

Research focus
neurodevelopmental disease
brain development
neurogenetics
autism
epilepsy
intellectual disability
organoid
stem cells
genomics
bioinformatics

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Ilona C Grunwald Kadow

Technical University of Munich, Germany

Expertise
Neuroscience
Genetics and Genomics
Developmental Biology

Research focus
circuit neuroscience
behavior
in vivo imaging
chemosensation
olfactory system
neuromodulation
metabolism
internal state

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
mouse
Richard P Harvey

The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia

Expertise
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
cardiovascular
stem cells
developmental biology
tissue regeneration
fibrosis
single cell biology

Experimental organism
mouse
human
zebrafish
P Robin Hiesinger

Institute for Biology Free University Berlin, Germany

Expertise
Cell Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Neuroscience

Research focus
brain development
synapse
neurogenetics
membrane trafficking
Drosophila
neurodegeneration
computational modelling
live-cell imaging

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
organoids
Oliver Hobert

Columbia University, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
microRNAs
epigenetics
developmental neurobiology

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Valerie Horsley

Yale University, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
epithelial stem cells
adipocyte stem cells
adipose tissue
epithelial-mesenchymal interactions
mechanical regulation of tissues
tissue regeneration
Patrick J Hu

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
signal transduction
genetics
development
aging
cancer
endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis
dauer

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Maneesha S Inamdar

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Cell Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
pluripotent stem cells
hematopoiesis
vascular
organelles
mitochondria
vesicular trafficking
cytoskeleton
protein sorting
Arezu Jahani-Asl

McGill University, Canada

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
glioblastoma
stem cells
mitochondria
transcription
mental retardation
neurodegeneration
cancer

Experimental organism
mouse
Pankaj Kapahi

Buck Institute for Research on Aging, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
aging
age-related diseases
nutrient signaling
metabolism
inflammation

Experimental organism
C. elegans
D. melanogaster
E. coli
mouse
Koichi Kawakami

National Institute of Genetics, Japan

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Neuroscience

Research focus
organogenesis
disease models
biotechnology
optogenetics
transposable elements
behavior
brain function
neural circuits

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Elisabeth Knust

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany

Expertise
Developmental Biology

Research focus
Drosophila
cell polarity
epithelia
adhesion
morphogenesis
trafficking
retinal development
retinal degeneration

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Paschalis Kratsios

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Neuroscience

Research focus
neuronal development
transcription factors
chromatin factors
neuronal identity
genetics

Experimental organism
C. elegans
mouse
T Rajendra Kumar

University of Colorado, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Medicine

Research focus
reproductive endocrinology
reproductive biology
pituitary
testis
ovary

Experimental organism
mouse
Shigehiro Kuraku

National Institute of Genetics, Japan

Expertise
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Developmental Biology

Research focus
molecular evolution
gene family evolution
developmental roles of duplicated genes
early vertebrate genome evolution

Experimental organism
reptiles
cyclostomes
chondrichthyans
Carole LaBonne

Northwestern University, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
neural crest
stem cells

Experimental organism
Xenopus
Cristina Lo Celso

Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
hematopoietic stem cell function
intravital microscopy
hematopoietic system
Pablo A Manavella

Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral , Argentina

Expertise
Plant Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics
Developmental Biology

Research focus
small RNA
microRNAs
RNA biology
chromatin
epigenetics
transposable elements
gene silencing
miRNA biogenesis

Experimental organism
A. thaliana
Juan P Martinez-Barbera

University College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Medicine
Cancer Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
brain
pituitary
tumour and cancer
embryos
cell senescence
senescence-associate secretory phenotype (SASP)
senolytic

Experimental organism
mouse
Margaret M McCarthy

University of Maryland School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Immunology and Inflammation
Neuroscience

Research focus
steroids
hypothalamus
social behaviour
sex differences
neuroimmunology
neuroendocrinology

Experimental organism
rat
mouse
Sigolène M Meilhac

Imagine-Institut Pasteur, France

Expertise
Developmental Biology

Research focus
morphogenesis
patterning
left-right asymmetry
heart development
cardiac cell lineages
congenital heart defect
mouse genetics

Experimental organism
mouse
Simón Méndez-Ferrer

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Expertise
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
Developmental Biology
Cancer Biology
Medicine

Research focus
haematopoietic stem cell niche
mesenchymal stem cells
myeloproliferative neoplasms
acute myeloid leukemia
neuroimmunology
Binyam Mogessie

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
meiosis
mitosis
oocytes
actin
microtubules
chromosome segregation
chromosome cohesion
chromosome organisation
kinetochores
aneuploidy
fertility

Experimental organism
mouse
human
pig
Marcos Nahmad

Centre for Research and Advanced Studies, Mexico

Expertise
Computational and Systems Biology
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
growth control
drosophila genetics
developmental patterning
mathematical modelling
Phil Newmark

Morgridge Institute for Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
Planarian
regeneration
Schistosoma
germ cells
Roel Nusse

Stanford University, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
wnt signaling
stem cells
tissue repair

Experimental organism
mouse
Tatjana Piotrowski

Stowers Institute for Medical Research, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
sensory organ development and regeneration
morphogenesis
transcriptional regulation of development and regeneration
cell migration
cell lineage
developmental neurobiology

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Samuel Pleasure

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
circuit development
hippocampus
cerebral cortex
epilepsy
human
forebrain development
autoimmune encephalitis
morphogenic signals
mouse
multiple sclerosis
Douglas Portman

University of Rochester, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
neurogenetics
behavioral genetics
behavioral plasticity
hypothamalus sex differences
neuronal development

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Jeremy Reiter

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
cilia
Sarah Russell

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
cell fate determination
T cells
cell polarity
synapse
asymmetric cell division
Scribble

Experimental organism
mouse
Rebecca M Sappington

Wake Forest School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Neuroscience
Immunology and Inflammation
Developmental Biology

Research focus
retina
optic nerve
neurodegeneration
glia
neuroinflammation
regeneration
axon
cytokine/chemokine
Oren Schuldiner

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology

Research focus
neural development
neuronal remodeling
axon pruning
circuit formation
developmental axon regrowth
mushroom body
James R Sellers

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
myosin
Sonia Sen

Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, India

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
neural stem cells
neural circuits
evo-devo
Drosophila
mosquito

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Jiwon Shim

Hanyang University, South Korea

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Immunology and Inflammation

Research focus
hematopoiesis
innate immunity
hemocyte
development
signaling
inter-organ communication

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Roy V Sillitoe

Baylor College of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology

Research focus
cerebellum
dystonia
tremor
electrophysiology
mouse genetics
development

Experimental organism
mouse
Mahendra Sonawane

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
morphogenesis
epithelial organisation
epithelial cell polarity
cytoskeleton and membrane projections
epidermis development

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Pablo H Strobl-Mazzulla

Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús, Argentina

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
vertebrate development
microRNAs
epigenetics
neural crest
placodes
Shahragim Tajbakhsh

Institut Pasteur, France

Expertise
Developmental Biology

Research focus
myogenesis
gene regulatory networks
regulation of myogenic stem cell emergence
embryology and adult muscle development and regeneration

Experimental organism
chicken
human
mouse
Owen Tamplin

University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States

Expertise
Genetics and Genomics
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
hematopoeitic stem cells
microenvironment
zebrafish
blood development
Kristin Tessmar-Raible

University of Vienna, Austria

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Neuroscience

Research focus
chronobiology
marine
photobiology
rhythms
clocks
physiology

Experimental organism
platynereis
clunio
danio
medakafish
oryzias
Fadel Tissir

University of Louvain, Belgium

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
neural progenitors
neuronal migration
polarity
axon guidance
neurodevelopmental disorders
ciliogenesis
cortical malformations
gene/genome editing

Experimental organism
mouse
Ivan Velasco

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
embryonic stem cells
induced pluripotent stem cells
neural stem cells
CNS development
Parkinson's disease
animal models of neurological diseases
cell grafting
axonal guidance
regeneration
Pablo Wappner

Instituto Leloir, Argentina

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
cell differentiation
signaling pathways
hypoxia
autophagy
adaptation to stress

Experimental organism
drosophila
Tanya T Whitfield

University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Expertise
Developmental Biology

Research focus
sensory placodes
inner ear
organogenesis
cell signalling

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Doris Wu

National Institutes of Health, Section on Sensory Cell Regeneration and Development, United States

Expertise
Neuroscience
Developmental Biology

Research focus
inner ear development
vestibular and cochlear patterning and development

Experimental organism
chicken
mouse
zebrafish
Jian Xu

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
hematopoiesis
erythropoiesis
myeloid leukemia
epigenetics
transcription regulation
enhancer
metabolism

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Yukiko M Yamashita

HHMI, University of Michigan, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
stem cell niche
asymmetric cell division
satellite DNA
germline immortality
ribosomal DNA

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Wei Yan

University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Medicine

Research focus
fertility
germ cells
reproduction
epigenetic inheritance
epigenomics
noncoding RNAs
post-transcriptional regulation
Karina Yaniv

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
angiogenesis
lymphatic
vascular
organogenesis

Experimental organism
mouse
zebrafish
Hong Zhang

Institute of Biophysics Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Expertise
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
autophagy
lysosome
membrane contact

Experimental organism
C. elegans