Gerald Thomsen, PhD
My research seeks to understand how growth factors, signal transduction pathways and gene circuits regulate cell fate and pattern formation in animal development and regeneration, using the African Clawed Frog Xenopus (a vertebrate model organism) and the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis (a cnidarian model organism). These animals last shared a common ancestor ~ 550 million years ago, which provides unique opportunities to use evolution to reveal common and unique developmental and molecular mechanisms. Most efforts presently focus on regeneration. We are also using Xenopus Crispr mutants to study how signaling pathways affect embryonic development, and to model developmental diseases, in collaboration with the National Xenopus Resource at the MBL in Woods Hole.
Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology