We are using scalable, high-throughput single cell genomics methods to study developmental mechanisms embryo-wide. By barcoding hundreds of individual fish, we can quantify cell type abundance changes in addition to gene expression, enabling a new view of how animals develop in response to genetic and environmental perturbations.

Every cell in an organism has reached that point through a series of cell divisions, constituting a lineage history. In vertebrate embryos, there are numerous instances where two lineages converge on a common cell or tissue type. We will couple lineage tracing with single-cell genomics to investigate this phenomenon organism-wide. 

We use zebrafish and medaka as model systems to explore developmental plasticity and genetic variation that contribute to morphological change over development and generational time. We use and develop genome editing tools to couple with imaging and sequencing to explore how individual cell lineages shape evolvability.