Shin-Ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, and Alessia Grozio, PhD, study in the lab.

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. elegansand mouse (M. musculus), as well as tissue culture systems and embryonic stem cells.

Upcoming events



Latest news

Andrew Yoo, Ph.D., has won the 2025 Jeffrey L. Morby Prize

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

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

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