Our program seeks to determine how cells and tissues integrate chemical and mechanical information to guide normal growth and homeostasis with the ultimate goal of being able to guide these processes with small molecules for therapeutic purposes.  To do this, our core research is focused on fundamental biomedical discovery, using genetic, biochemical, and cell biophysical approaches and small molecule screening with the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum.  Initially, we focused heavily on cytokinesis as a model cell morphogenic event.  Cytokinesis naturally enca

During cytokinesis, a cortical contractile ring forms around the cell equator and constricts to partition the contents of the mother cell into the two daughter cells. Cytokinesis represents a paradigm for a temporally and spatially controlled cellular shape change that is achieved by regulation of the actomyosin cortex.  I will present two new studies related to the mechanism of cytokinesis conducted in the one-cell C. elegans embryo. To initiate cytokinesis, the anaphase spindle sends a stimulatory signal to the cell equator that promotes cortical contractility.

Life is in a constant state of revision in response to evolutionary pressures such as environmental change. In the Clark lab we seek to understand these adaptive changes by studying evolutionary signatures in genes and regulatory sequences. Our computational methods leverage convergent evolution, in which independent phylogenetic lineages evolve the same phenotype, to discover the genetic changes underlying specific adaptations.