Bénédicte Sanson

Understanding how a 3D tissue is built from the genetic blueprint is a key frontier in biology. In addition to some of the genes known to be important in specific aspects of morphogenesis, physical properties and constraints play a major role in building tissues. As geneticists and developmental cell biologists interested in morphogenesis, we aim to understand how the genetic inputs integrate with the mechanical properties of the cells and tissues to produce form.

We focus our research on two fundamental and conserved morphogenetic phenomena, axis extension and compartmental boundary formation, for which we have evidence of an integration between the function of genes and the action of mechanical forces in the developing tissues. We study these in a model organism, the Drosophila embryo, because this is one of the simplest (and cheapest) multicellular models that are genetically tractable. In addition, this embryo is very accessible to in vivo imaging, develops fast and is increasingly exploited as a paradigm for the mathematic modeling of morphogenesis.

We analyse a window of development that encompasses both axis extension and compartmental boundary formation (Diagram). Axis extension starts shortly after gastrulation with the trunk ectoderm (the germ-band) elongating in the anteroposterior axis. Compartmental boundaries separating each parasegments form during germ-band extension. Our research is  interdisciplinary, combining genetic, quantitative and in silico approaches to find novel and universal morphogenetic rules.

Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, Cambridge Newton Trust

Guy Blanchard (Senior Research Associate)
Jenny Evans (Lab Manager)
Nathan Hervieux (Research Associate)
Claire Lye (Research Associate)
Alexander Nestor-Bergmann (Herchel-Smith Postdoctoral Fellow)
Elena Scarpa (Herchel-Smith Postdoctoral Fellow)
Tom Sharrock (3rd year PhD student from BBSRC DTP program)

(recent past group members: Huw Naylor, Tara Finegan, Cedric Finet, Jose-Maria Urbano)

Clare Buckley (PDN)

Daniel St Johnston (Gurdon Institute)

Jocelyn Etienne (Laboratoire Interdisciplaire de Physique, Grenoble, France)

Alexander Fletcher (School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield)