Establishing Cell Fates
The establishment of cell identities is at the heart of developmental biology.
The fertilized egg is pluripotent, able to produce all cell types of the
body. As development proceeds, however, cells lose their plasticity
and acquire individual cell fates. The molecular underpinnings of this transition
are being actively studied at the University of Utah. For example, intercellular
signaling is one critical mechanism that allows organisms to coordinate
the development of large groups of cells. Sequence-specific
transcription factors are also key for specifying cell fates. What genes
are targeted by these factors? And how do they work? DBIG investigators
use diverse approaches to address these questions, including genetics, molecular
biology, biochemistry and genomics. In addition, the strong community of
DBIG members studying fundamental transcriptional
mechanisms contributes to our understanding of how sequence-specific
factors function.
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