Gene regulation plays an important role in development, controlling cellular differentiation, morphogenesis, and ultimately tissue formation. I am interested in two aspects of gene regulation: 1) how patterns of gene expression are formed (spatial), and 2) how transcription factors in gene regulatory networks regulate their target genes over time (temporal). My research focuses on understanding how the unique morphogen Dorsal patterns the Dorsal-Ventral axis of D. melanogaster during embryogenesis. Specifically, I employ cutting edge technology including CRISPR-Cas9 and optogenetics to introduce light-controllable tags to Dorsal. The goal of using these optogenetic tools is to control the spatiotemporal dynamics of Dorsal and observe the effect of these manipulations on target genes, in order to understand how transcription factor dynamics control gene expression.
