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Sharad RamanathanOur lab is interested in how cells make developmental decisions based on environmental cues, and how they stick to these decisions. Our experimental effort focuses on the dynamics of MAP kinase pathways in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These pathways are involved in responding to a variety of stimuli, including pheromones (in the mating process), glucose or nitrogen starvation (causing cells to invade the medium), and hyper- and hypo-osmolarity. The big puzzle in the literature is how these pathways remain faithful to their inputs despite sharing common components. We are interested in understanding the dynamics of these pathways through a combination of experimental and computational approaches, in particular exploring the role of the common components in the decision-making process. In addition, our lab is developing image-processing and computational tools to quantify morphogen movement in Drosophila and zebrafish, as well as tools to automate the analysis of fluorescent images from our experiments on yeast. Our lab welcomes biologists who want to learn mathematical tools to improve the design and analysis of experiments, as well as physicists who want to retrain themselves in experimental molecular biology techniques. Contact |
