We bring together backgrounds in cell and developmental biology, bioinformatics, engineering, and physics to address import open questions in human development.
Our goal is to understand how human pluripotent stem cells generate and interpret the chemical and physical signals that allow them to self-organize into spatial structures consisting of multiple cell types in vitro, and, by extension to the embryo, in vivo. By combining quantitative live-cell measurements and engineering tools such as micropatterning with predictive mathematical models we can answer currently intractable questions in developmental and stem cell biology.
email: idse dot heemskerk at gmail dot com.
office: BSRB 3047, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor