Moens Lab

Understanding mechanisms of cancer initiation and spread requires first understanding how genes control cell growth and differentiation, motility and communication in a complex four-dimensional in vivo environment. All of these processes originally occur during embryo development and can be exquisitely visualized in vivo in the transparent zebrafish embryo. The Moens lab uses the zebrafish to study the early development of the vertebrate brain at the time when neurons acquire their position-specific identities, migrate to the appropriate locations and generate axons that are guided to their synaptic targets. Our specific focus is on the development of the vagus nerve which innervates the throat for speech and swallowing and provides the major route of neuronal communication between the visceral organs and the brain (the “gut-brain axis”). We use genetics and live imaging with the long-term goal of understanding the developmental events leading to the establishment of normal neural circuits controlling vagus-mediated reflexes.