Skip to main content

Ilaria Rebay, PhD

The long-term goal of research in the Rebay Lab is to understand how signaling networks, cytoskeletal dynamics and tissue geometry work together to direct specific developmental decisions and programs. We use the developing Drosophila eye and heart as tractable model systems in which to explore how cell fates are specified and organized into functional tissues and organs. Our experimental approach is multidisciplinary, and incorporates molecular genetics, genomics, quantitative imaging, biochemistry and mathematical modeling. Current projects are focused on transcriptional networks and cellular mechanisms that regulate and stabilize the transition from uncommitted progenitor to specified fate and on signaling mechanisms and tissue-level biomechanical properties that together drive terminal differentiation and morphogenesis.