Stanford School of Medicine
Developmental Biology

Graduate Studies

Spontaneous mutation showing legs in place of antennae

Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in the Department of Developmental Biology work at the forefront of modern molecular genetics to discover mechanisms underlying embryonic development, cell differentiation and disease. Using model organisms from bacteria to worms, flies, mice, fish and cultured cells, researchers in the Department apply cutting edge tools of genomics, microscopy, molecular cloning, biochemistry, and genetics to investigate fundamental mechanisms of cancer, stem cell biology, neural development, embryonic pattern formation, cell-cell communication, cell division, differential gene expression, reproductive biology and aging. Recent breakthroughs in Developmental Biology have revealed master regulatory genes that pattern embryos, limbs and organs and that direct growth and differentiation of specific cell types. Exciting advances in Developmental Biology are also revealing the molecular mechanisms by which different cell types communicate to coordinate morphogenesis of tissues and the relationship of these mechanisms to cancer, neural development, bone and joint formation, pancreas development, and the production of differentiated cells from stem cell precursors.

Faculty in the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford investigate basic biological mechanisms of direct and fundamental relevance to human development and disease, including brain development, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, Downs' syndrome, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis, birth defects, design of new antibiotics, infertility, and aging. Click here for brief descriptions of the research programs of current faculty in the Department of Developmental Biology.



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