Philip Benfey

Is intrigued by one of the key questions in developmental biology: how cells acquire their identities. This is an important question in human development, where stem cells divide and differentiate into skin, muscle, fat etc. It is equally central to plant development, where most organs and cells are formed from stem cell populations known as meristems. The Benfey lab addresses this question using a combination of genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to identify and characterize the genes that regulate formation of the root in the plant model system, Arabidopsis thaliana. The choice of the root as a model was based on the simplicity of its organization and its stereotyped developmental program.