Ricardo Mallarino
Princeton University, NJ·Biology
When embryos develop, most changes to the process cause harm, leading to death or birth defects. Some changes, though, produce healthy new traits and fuel evolution.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
developmental biology
evo-devo
morphogenesis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Determine how the signaling center of the sugar glider's gliding membrane (patagium) is established and how the gene Wnt5a controls membrane outgrowth, using spatial transcriptomics and in vivo transgenics.
- Test how gene expression programs and mechanical tissue properties together shape the gliding membrane, using live imaging, quantitative in vitro assays and mathematical modeling.
- Identify the upstream DNA regulatory mechanisms that restrict the gene Emx2 to the side skin of sugar gliders, using high-resolution chromatin conformation assays and enhancer reporter screens.
- Uncover how a Wnt signaling gradient in back skin is established and how hair follicle cell types shape stripe patterns in the African striped mouse.
- Compare rodent species to find how differences in placode patterning (early hair follicle clusters) arise and how pigmentation genes become active in different skin regions, using functional genomics and computational biology.
More about the research
Studying the natural variety of animal forms can therefore show how development can change without breaking its core steps, which also sheds light on our own development. The lab uses natural variation in mammalian skin to tackle this question through two projects. One studies the gliding membrane of sugar gliders, and the other studies stripe patterns in rodent fur. Both ask how skin cells learn where they are in the body and form patterned structures.
Why it matters
Both projects are basic science. They aim to reveal general principles of how mammalian tissues are patterned and shaped, and how skin cells acquire positional information. Because the processes that create harmless natural variation are related to those that cause congenital abnormalities, this understanding could eventually help explain how human development goes right or wrong.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Beryl Jones
University of Kentucky, KY·Ecology & Evolution
Identify changes in gene regulatory networks (GRNs) linked to evolutionary gains and losses of social behavior across bee species that differ in sociality.
Gregory Barsh
Stanford University, CA·Genetics
Identify additional components of the Taqpep pathway, which links a membrane protease to Wnt-inhibitor signaling, by forward genetics in Bengal cats and analysis of fetal cat skin where patterns first form.
Cheng-Ming Chuong
University of Southern California, CA·Biology
Test whether skin morphogenesis is built from linked sensor–actuator modules that turn physical cues, such as adhesion forces and ECM pulling, into gene activity, using living skin and organ explants.
The school
Princeton University: 26 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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