Cellular mechanisms of amphibian metamorphosis

甲状腺激素调节生长、发育和新陈代谢。尽管这些激素对包括人类在内的所有脊椎动物都很重要，但这些激素的不同影响的最好例子是青蛙的正常胚胎后发育，在这个过程中，甲状腺激素触发蝌蚪变态为幼蛙。由于期待从水生生活方式向陆地生活方式的转变，蝌蚪的身体结构发生了显著的变化。同样的激素可以对蝌蚪组织产生非常不同的影响(例如，尾巴消失，腿长出来)，我的研究计划专注于了解这些差异是如何产生的。我们假设存在导致这些差异的特定基因，我们将识别它们，并检查调节它们如何工作的分子开关。了解这一点很重要，因为它为我们提供了关于激素如何产生非常不同的影响的基本信息，并让我们深入了解为什么一些组织对环境污染物更敏感，以及这些污染物如何干扰激素的作用。

Thyroid hormones regulate growth, development, and metabolism. Although important in all vertebrates including humans, the best example of the diverse effects of these hormones is the normal postembryonic development of the frog where thyroid hormones trigger tadpole metamorphosis into a juvenile frog. Tadpoles undergo remarkable remodeling of the body plan in anticipation of the transition from an aquatic to a terrestrial lifestyle. The same hormone can have very different effects on tadpole tissues (for e.g. the tail disappears and the legs grow) and my research program focuses on understanding how these differences come about. We hypothesize that there are specific genes that contribute to these differences and we will identify them and examine the molecular switches that regulate how they work. Understanding this is important because it gives us fundamental information on how hormones can have very diverse effects and it gives us insight into why some tissues are more sensitive to environmental contaminants and how these contaminants could disturb hormone action.