Our research is focused on two broad areas.
Firstly, our laboratory is interested in developmental mechanisms of enteric nervous system (ENS) formation. This work is aimed at understanding the development of the ENS in normal, abnormal, and evolutionary contexts. We do this by examining the role of the extracellular environment in the embryonic gut that regulate the mechanisms of neural crest derived stem cell differentiation during intestinal morphogenesis.
Secondly, our laboratory focuses on mechanisms that underlie lymphoid organ formation. This work also uses the avian embryo as the model system, and addresses cellular (stem cell migration, differentiation), molecular (Foxn1, CXCR4, Shh, BMP4 expression), immunological (IBDV and bronchitis infection) and morphological (confocal, immune electron-microscopy) aspects of the primary and secondary lymphoid organ formation. Our aim is to discover how the avian lymphoid organs are built, and how immunosuppressive diseases affect its organization.