Development and Growth Control Laboratory

During the development of multicellular organisms, body growth is controlled at the scale of the organism by the activity of long-range signaling molecules, mostly hormones. These systemic factors coordinate growth between developing tissues and act as relays to adjust body growth in response to environmental changes. In target organs, long-range signals act in concert with tissue-autonomous ones to regulate the final size of a given tissue.

The interplay between systemic and tissue-autonomous signals contributes to defining the final size of a tissue or organ. Drosophila imaginal discs, simple epithelial invaginations that grow one thousand fold in mass and cell number, are probably one of the best model systems to analyze at the genetic and molecular level the control of size in a growing epithelium. My lab uses the wing imaginal disc to dissect the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of tissue growth.

We take an integrative approach as we aim to understand how the final size of the developing wing is achieved not only during normal development but also in stress conditions. In this regard, we are dissecting the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the homeostatic capacity of the tissue to several insults (with a special interest in genomic instability) and its potential impact in tumorigenesis. This integrative approach helps to understand the robust interplay between systemic and tissue-autonomous signals in normal development or in stress situations, and contributes to identifying emerging stress signalling molecules transiently induced to compensate for tissue loss that can contribute to tumorigenesis in a condition of chronic expression.