Tapon lab

Apoptosis and Proliferation Control Laboratory

: Areas of interest

Image of the histoblasts, the cells that form the abdomen of the adult fruit fly.

Introduction

Hippo pathway inhibition in a developing Drosophila wing.

Hippo pathway inhibition in a developing Drosophila wing.

Our aim is to understand how tissue size is specified during development and adulthood, which remains one of the most challenging questions in biology.

In order to achieve consistent organ and body size in individuals of the same species, cell growth and cell number must be tightly controlled, not only during development, but also during adult homeostasis to prevent tumour formation.

Our main interest is the Hippo signalling pathway, a conserved growth-regulatory network that is dysregulated in many cancer types. In particular, we want to understand how Hippo signalling is coupled to both tissue architecture and systemic cues such as nutrient availability.

We use a large array of methods, from Drosophila and mouse genetics, live imaging, through to proteomics, functional genomics and mathematical modelling.

Selected publications