Welcome to the Roy Lab

Our lab investigates the fundamental principles and mechanisms governing intercellular communication through developmental signals, and how this communication shapes and maintains complex multicellular tissue architectures.

 

During animal development, cells must exchange secreted signals with remarkable spatial and temporal precision, transmitting information across extracellular space and coordinating their behavior with cells both near and far. Although signals such as growth factors are often modeled as freely secreted molecules that disperse passively through extracellular space, our research is guided by the premise that their secretion, distribution, and reception are actively regulated and coordinated by cells in space and time.

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A central focus of our research is how this precision is achieved through cytonemes—dynamic, nanoscale membrane protrusions that extend toward and directly contact specific target cells. Emerging evidence suggests that cytonemes provide direct routes for signal transport and exchange at specialized contact sites, enabling an active and highly targeted mode of cell-cell communication analogous to signaling through neuronal synapses. By supporting contact-dependent communication between distant cells, cytonemes can control where, when, and how developmental signals are delivered, received, and interpreted.

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Working at the interface of cell and developmental biology, we seek to uncover how cells control cytoneme formation and behavior, regulate signal transport, release, and reception through these nanoscale structures, and translate cytoneme-mediated signaling into the collective cellular decisions that generate complex tissue patterns and forms.