Welcome to the Raj Laboratory

Our lab studies the process of development of multicellular organisms. Our primary interest is in understanding the mechanisms by which development progresses in a reliable fashion despite genetic, environmental and stochastic perturbations. Understanding mechanisms of biological robustness is important for the design of synthetic gene networks. Also, the failure of such mechanisms may play a role in diseases such as cancer.

The approach of our group is to use new single molecule detection methods to achieve a quantitative view of development, focusing initially on C. elegans and mammalian model systems. We use this data to formulate and test theoretical models of developmental processes.

We aim to foster a richly interdisciplinary research environment in which biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists, computer scientists and mathematicians can work together to solve exciting new problems. The lab is officially opening in January 2010; feel free to contact me any time if you are interested in joining the lab.