Current research
Our research is highly diverse and includes topics ranging from embryogenesis, cell reprogramming and organogenesis to aging and stem cell engineering.
Our ongoing and future work will focus on new and emerging areas of developmental biology, such as epigenetics and genomics.
Model systems
We house one of the largest zebrafish facilities in the world. Along with zebrafish (D. rerio), we study several other model systems, including the fruit fly (D. melanogaster), nematode (C. elegans) and mouse (M. musculus), as well as tissue culture systems and embryonic stem cells.
Latest news
Andrew Yoo, Ph.D., has won the 2025 Jeffrey L. Morby Prize
Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Yoo! Andrew Yoo, Ph.D., Phil and Sima Needleman Distinguished Professor of Developmental Biology, has won the 2025 Jeffrey L. Morby Prize for his paper entitled ““Modeling late-onset Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology via direct neuronal reprogramming.”
Helen McNeill’s New Publication
Congratulations to Helen McNeill’s Lab on their recent publication! Regulation of Hippo signaling and planar cell polarity via distinct regions of the Fat intracellular domain. Julick CR, Thanintorn N, Zhang H, Tsatskis Y, Glaeser M, Qu Y, Rusch J, McNeill H. Development. 2025 May 16:dev.204694. PMID: 40377178
Thor Theunissen’s New Publication
Congratulations to Thor Theunissen’s Lab on their recent publication! Stem cell models of human embryo implantation and trophoblast invasion Liu P, Mattis S, Theunissen TW. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2025 May 20;93:102357. PMID: 40398076