Our lab is broadly interested in understanding mechanisms that drive morphogenetic processes during animal development. We primarily use the model system C. elegans in our research and focus on an organogenesis event: the connection of the developing uterine and vulval tissues.

One key aspect of this process is the invasion of a single uterine cell, the anchor cell, through the uterine and vulval basement membranes to initiate the uterine-vulval connection. The ability of cells to invade through basement membrane, the thin, dense, barrier-like extracellular matrix that surrounds most tissues, is crucial for many developmental processes and remains one of the least understood aspects in the progression of cancer. Anchor cell invasion is emerging as a powerful system to uncover novel molecular mechanisms controlling invasive behavior and we have begun to apply what we learn in the anchor cell to better understand how cancer cells become invasive. Our group also examines later aspects of uterine-vulval attachment and we have focused on control of cell division, cell-cell signaling, cell-cell attachments and basement membrane remodeling. To attack these problems our group combines genetic, genomic, molecular, cell biological and live-cell imaging approaches to uncover the underlying mechanisms. Ultimately, we expect to take what we learn from C. elegans and apply it towards new therapeutic strategies to better treat human diseases such as cancer.

We are grateful to the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, Pew Foundation, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Hargitt Foundation, Duke University, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for supporting our research.