My research is concerned with the way in which the machinery underlying coordinated movement is genetically specified and assembled during embryonic development. On the one hand this involves an analysis of the way in which muscles are assembled, specified and patterned and on the other an investigation of the way in which motor circuits are generated and begin to function. We work with the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster and this means that, as a group, we can bring a combination of genetic, molecular and cellular techniques to bear on these fundamental issues of neuromuscular development.
