Research Interests

Establishment of the body pattern at gastrulation.

Research Area

The Dawid laboratory used the frog Xenopus laevis and the zebrafish Danio rerio as experimental systems in which to study molecular-genetic mechanisms of early vertebrate development. They focused on mechanisms of neural crest specification, axon guidance, cell-cell adhesion, and targeted gene disruption. Professor Dawid made several important contributions to the field including obtaining some of the first molecular evidence for the existence and maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in animals, co-discovering amplification of ribosomal genes in frog oocytes, being a leader in the study of differential gene expression in embryogenesis, illuminating the role of Lhx genes and the Wnt pathway in axis determination, and contributing to the elucidation of additional pathways regulating vertebrate development.

Current Members

Dawid, Igor B (Principal Investigator/Director)
Tanegashima, Kousuke (Post-doc)

Contact

Institution: NIH-NICHD

Address:
NIH
Bethesda, MD
USA