Amanda A. Amodeo

My lab seeks to address fundamental biological questions about how cells and organs measure their sizes in developmental contexts. Our work focuses on the understanding the molecular pathways that regulate and coordinate the cell cycle, transcription, and chromatin regulation. Specifically, we have focused on the early embryos of the fruit fly Drosophila where “normal” cell size control is turned on its head. While in most contexts a cell needs to grow to double its original size before dividing in order to maintain a constant cell volume, the early embryo starts off as a huge cell that undergoes reductive cleavage divisions without growth to restore more typical cell sizes. We take advantage of the exquisite quantitative imaging, genetics, and genomics of the fly embryo to interrogate how cells know when they have reached the correct cell size to stop dividing and begin differentiating. We also employ classic molecular biology, biochemistry, and mathematical modeling to refine and develop our understanding of the system.