Gail R. Martin

I am interested in understanding how outgrowth and patterning of organ primordia are regulated in the vertebrate embryo. By conducting gain-of-function experiments in the chicken embryo and loss-of-function studies in the mouse embryo, my colleagues and I have shown that members of the fibroblast-growth-factor (FGF) family play a central role in this process, particularly in limb and early brain development. We are currently trying to determine which molecular and cellular processes are disrupted when FGFs, as well as other essential secreted signaling molecules, are absent during organogenesis.