The goal of the Heemskerk lab is to understand how human pluripotent stem cells generate and interpret the chemical and physical signals that allow them to self-organize into spatial structures consisting of multiple cell types in vitro, and, by extension to the embryo, in vivo. By combining quantitative live-cell measurements and engineering tools such as micropatterning with predictive mathematical models we can answer currently intractable questions in developmental and stem cell biology.

What are the mechanisms through which stem cells give rise to self-organized embryonic structures and organs? How is the information required to form these structures encoded in highly dynamic signals? What is the role of the physical forces and geometric constraints in reproducible tissue patterning and morphogenesis?