Streichan Lab
Principal Investigator: Sebastian J Streichan
Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
ABSTRACT Shape is critical for proper organ function. From genetic model animals, we have learned much about the principles of how morphogens setup body axes, and trigger a cascade of regulatory factors to setup a coordinate system of fate patterning the organism, and endowing each cell with a unique fate. Pioneering work demonstrated that the fate system controls shape. But how these processes control shape remains elusive. Mechanobiology demonstrated that shape emerges from physical interactions between cells. Therefore, morphogenesis is also a problem of physics, leading to the question: How does developmental biology control the physics of morphogenesis? From single cell studies in vitro, we have learned how cells utilize fundamentally dynamic processes that involve their cytoskeleton to generate forces. However, how forces are coordinated across tissues to reliably generate form remains elusive. Progress requires extending molecular analysis to investigation of cellular dynamics at the organ level, to study the interplay of forces and cell behaviors. The polymath D’Arcy Thompson already pointed out that quantitative analysis of morphogenesis promises new biological insights. H…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM138203-07: Physics of Living Matter: From Molecule to Embryo (2026)
- 2R35GM138203-06: Physics of Living Matter: From Molecule to Embryo (2025)
- 5R35GM138203-05: Physics of Living Matter: From Molecule to Embryo (2024)
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