To control the progression of cell cycle events, animal cells employ a dynamic decision-making web that integrates inputs such as cell size and metabolic status with checkpoint signaling, and damage sensing. In multicellular contexts, intrinsic and extrinsic developmental cues and organismal physiology also feed into the decisions to proliferate, quiesce or differentiate. The circuits that integrate cell-intrinsic and extrinsic information to control cell cycle progression and regulate transitions to and from quiescent states are at the frontier of current research.

The principal goal of our research is to understand how cell cycle decision points are regulated and to determine how these decisions impact and are controlled by developmental context