My group works towards understanding the principles that govern collective organization in multicellular organisms using molecular and cellular biology, physics and computer science. We also aim at connecting our fundamental discoveries to real-world problems of human health and technology.
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Hernán López-Schier
Group Leader
I have been a the Director of the Research Unit "Sensory Biology & Organogenesis" at the Helmholtz Center (Munich, Germany) since 2012. I trained in genetics and cell biology using Drosophila, first as an undergraduate visiting student at the Rockefeller University (New York, U.S.A.), and then as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, U.K.). I did postdoctoral work on sensory biology using the zebrafish again at Rockefeller from 2002 to 2007. I established my independent group at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (Barcelona, Spain), where I decided to concentrate on the development and regeneration of mechanosensory organs. In 2012 I took the opportunity of moving to Munich to shift focus on understanding collective organization sensu lato. We study evolutionary and mechanistic aspects of organization in gene-regulatory networks, cells and organisms.
Projects
Organization of Organs
We are interested in discovering the routes and mechanisms that underlie the morphogenesis and morphostasis of complex tissues in their natural context, which is crucial to many areas of biology and medicine, including the controlled production of organoids and functional organs. We are also interested in understanding the mechanisms that control organ proportions and size, using genetic manipulations, live microscopy and machine learning.
Regeneration and Bioengineering
Using transcriptional profiling, live microscopy, and cell-lineage tracing, we attempt to understand the self-organising principles that underlie the recapitulation of organ structure during repair. We are also using optogenetic approaches to promote regeneration.
Sensory Biology
We hope to unravel the cellular, neurobiological and computational basis of mechanosensation. To this aim, we are reconstructing a cellular-resolution map of the larval zebrafish neuronal circuits to generate a wiring diagram of sensory flow from peripheral receptors to the brain.
