Final Report Summary - DROSOPHILASIGNALING (Signaling Pathways Controlling Patterning, Growth and Final Size of Drosophila Limbs)
Our project, enabled by the ERC grant, has already yielded important advances in our understanding of how growth and patterning are regulated. Our goal was to be able to begin to visualize, quantify and model growth and patterning in an intact developing organ, in real time. This we can now do opening up a myriad of new possibilities for future research. In the process we have developed novel technologies and methodologies; such as improved ex vivo culturing methodologies. A highlight has been our work on Dpp, which has provided seminal insights that are essential for us to understand how growth and patterning control mechanisms synergize. This basic research builds an essential foundation for investigating and interpreting the global effects on growth, when the associated pathways are perturbed. Such perturbations are the cause of many diseases including cancers of all types. Only by understanding the basics can we hope to successfully intervene when things have gone awry.