Genetics Department Seminar Series: "Cytoskeletal Control of Tissue Development"

The seminar will cover lessons learned from studying the organization, dynamics and function of the microtubule cytoskeleton in an in vivo context. I will show that using tissues to study microtubules allows discovery of basic cell biology principles, and that using microtubules as a prism to view tissue development reveals aspects of cell communication and progenitor cell regulation that were previously unrecognized. Specifically, I will cover how centrosomes are inactivated during tissue differentiation, and how studying microtubules led us to appreciate novel roles for differentiated cells in regulating stem/progenitor cell proliferation, migration, and cell fate decisions.