Hans Othmer

Title      

Patterning and Growth in Development

Abstract

Understanding the control of the size, shape and patterning of developing systems remains as one of the major problems in developmental biology. Local control of these attributes at the tissue or organ level involves signaling networks, cell-cell interactions, and environmental conditions, but local development must also be synchronized with global development at the organism level. Drosophila melanogasteris currently the organism of choice for studying these problems at the local and global levels, both experimentally and theoretically. In this talk we will address some of the underlying modeling issues that arise, and discuss recent progress on some of the major signaling pathways involved in development of the wing disc. Since signal transduction and growth control pathways are highly conserved across species and are directly involved in tumor growth, much of what is learned about Drosophilamay have relevance to tumor dynamics in mammalian systems.