Tapon lab

Apoptosis and Proliferation Control Laboratory

How is the size and shape of our bodies and organs defined and maintained? 

In our lab, we are trying to solve one of the most challenging questions in biology – what controls tissue size and architecture?

How do cells know they are in the right number and organisation to form a heart? Or a liver? Or the skin that covers our bodies?

To achieve consistent tissue and body size in individuals of the same species, the number of cells and how they grow must be tightly controlled throughout an organism’s entire life.

Cells that are allowed to grow unchecked can form tumours. The more we learn about how cells are controlled and organised in normal health and development, the greater an insight we gain into what’s happening in disease.

Our lab is most interested in how cells exchange a myriad of chemical and mechanical signals with each other to reach the correct tissue size during development. We also want to understand how different body sizes have evolved by comparing growth regulation across species.

To do this, we use genetics to manipulate cell signals in fly and mouse models, and follow what happens in real-time using live microscope images. We then piece data together using mathematical models that allow us to make sense of the complexity of growth control.