Kimmel Lab

Our lab focuses on the cellular and genetic mechanisms that control the shaping of skull cartilages and bones during development, and on how development changes during evolution to produce the marvelous diversity that we observe the skulls in different kinds of animals. We use teleost fish for these studies. We take advantage of zebrafish as a model system for development and genetics, of stickleback as a model for evolutionary biology and evo devo, and of teleosts more generally, the most species rich of all vertebrate groups, for their outstanding phenotypic variation.