INTERNAL MORPHOGENESIS AND HOMEOSTASIS

Our main scientific interest is the understanding of intestinal morphogenesis and cellular polarity during morphogenesis, homeostasis, and regeneration, as well as their implications in human diseases, such as cancer, inflammation and intestinal bowel diseases (IBD). Our research is based model systems such as organoids. Moreover, with this system, we are obtaining essential information about the molecular mechanisms that regulate epithelial morphogenesis. However, this model cannot reconstitute the complexity of the architecture given in vivo, which includes different cell types, dynamic remodeling, and tissue homeostasis. For this reason, the use of in vivo systems should serve to validate and better characterize the phenotypes observed in vitro. We used the zebrafish and mouse intestine as models systems to elucidate epithelial morphogenesis and intestinal homeostasis.

We are focused on the analysis of genes that regulate epithelial polarity during morphogenesis, and intestinal homeostasis, and particularly those controlling the following processes: Signaling, membrane trafficking, mechanical forces, and metabolic remodeling.