Richard Harland
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Biology
How does a ball of identical-looking cells fold, stretch and move to build a body with a head, a back and a nervous system? This project studies early vertebrate development at the molecular level in the frog Xenopus.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
- Topics
developmental biology
embryology
Xenopus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Determine how members of the Plekhg family of Rho GTP exchange factors, proteins that switch on cell-shape signals, control specific cell behaviors during gastrulation and neurulation in Xenopus embryos, using CRISPR knockdown.
- Extend the analysis to other Rho GEFs and GTPase-activating proteins that show early tissue-movement defects, using microinjection, whole-embryo imaging and confocal imaging of tissue explants.
- Test the idea that GEFs are deployed selectively to drive particular cell shape changes, to explain how distinct cell behaviors are controlled during vertebrate morphogenesis.
More about the research
Many inherited birth defects in humans are linked to faulty genes that act in early development, so knowing how these genes normally work helps explain how development can go wrong.
Why it matters
Many congenital human diseases involve genes that normally act in early embryonic development. By showing how specific proteins control cell shape changes and tissue movements in a vertebrate embryo, this work adds basic understanding of normal body formation. It could eventually inform how defects in these genes contribute to birth defects.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Michael D Sheets
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biology
Define how Bicaudal-C (Bicc1), an RNA-binding protein, selects its target mRNAs, testing whether multiple independent RNA-binding surfaces in its binding domain determine specificity, using RNA-protein biochemistry and genome-wide approaches.
Amy Sater
University of Houston, TX·Biology
Test how retinoic acid, a vitamin A-derived signal that patterns the embryo from head to tail, triggers the start of glial cell formation in the front region of the developing spinal cord of Xenopus laevis embryos.
Nanette M Nascone-Yoder
North Carolina State University, NC·Biology
Identify which left-right asymmetries in the endoderm, mesoderm and extracellular matrix are required for stomach curvature, using tissue- and side-specific gene function tests and mechanical measurements in frog embryos.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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