The Calof lab uses genetics, molecular biology and systems biology approaches to address questions in development, regeneration, and tissue homeostasis. We also work on vertebrate animal model systems to try to understand the etiology of certain human genetic diseases that affect development and function, especially of the nervous system.

Among the questions we are addressing are:

How can we use molecular, cellular, and computational approaches together to gain insights into the behaviors of endogenous stem cells during development and regeneration of epithelia, particularly neural (sensory) epithelia?
In particular, we are interested in understanding how interacting feedback loops mediated by different molecular signals interact to achieve the performance objectives of developing and regenerating epithelia. We move between wet-lab experimental approaches, to modeling and back again to experimental approaches, to test these ideas.

Can mouse and zebrafish models of Cornelia de Lange Syndrome provide insights into the many structural and physiological disorders, also common in non-syndromic birth defects, which are associated with this human genetic disease?
Of particular interest are heart defects, limb reduction defects, and neural pathologies.

Are the developmental phenotypes observed in birth defects disorders (e.g. heart defects, autism) the result of the combinatorial actions of small changes in activities of many genes, rather than major changes in the activity of any one single gene?
We use conditional/invertible alleles (FLEX alleles) of genes, in combination with unbiased transcriptome screens, to help us understand how small changes in gene expression that take place in particular locations and/or at particular developmental epochs, lead to widespread structural birth defects.