Welcome to the Beitel Lab!
Our lab works to understand how cells create complex three-dimensional organs by coordinately regulating their shapes with other cells. Our primary model system is the Drosophila tracheal system which serves as a genetically accessible model for organs such as the kidney, vascular system and lung that are made from tubular epithelial.
Despite the importance of these organs, the basic molecular mechanisms of tubulogenesis and tube-size control are poorly understood, and there are not treatments for devastating diseases such as Polycystic
Kidney Disease (PKD) that affect tube architecture. We use genetic, molecular, cell biological and biochemical approaches to investigate how the sizes of tracheal tubes are controlled, and to probe the roles of vertebrate homologs of tracheal morphogenesis genes.
