In the Verheyen lab we have several overlapping areas of interest. We use molecular, genetic, and biochemical approaches to understand organismal development. We characterize signal transduction pathways that drive proper differentiation and are disrupted in diseases such as cancer. We have also generated models of human developmental disorders to gain insight into mechanisms of disease. Our work to characterize patient gene variants allows us to gain insight into underlying causes of disease. For these studies, we use Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, as a genetic model organism. Most genes implicated in human disease have counterparts in the fly, enabling us to take advantage of the exquisite genetic tractability to understand protein function in numerous developmental contexts. Drosophila have emerged as powerful tools to understand fundamental biological questions as well as serving as excellent, physiologically relevant, disease models.