Dr Timothy Weil

Many animals require well coordinated events in the developing egg prior to fertilisation in order to enable the pronucleus to form and early embryogenesis to occur. Control over the cell-cycle, organising of axis determining factors and signalling cascades are among the many functions that prepare the egg for fertilisation. The Weil Lab is interested in how these events are organised and regulated with specific interest in maternal transcripts and calcium release.

More specifically, changes in protein expression underlie cell activity. One way to control protein levels is though post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs, which can be localised to sub-cellular domains. This conserved mechanism for the spatial regulation of gene expression enables cells to target protein function in space and time. Protein expression is especially crucial at times when cells transitions from one fate or function to another.