Each stage of nervous system development requires the precise orchestration of cell-cell communication. First, cell contact initiates neurogenesis and organizes morphogenesis.
Next, spatially and temporally specified guidance cues direct growing axons to their targets. Finally, activity between synapses consolidates specific contacts, creating a
functional neural network. The ability of an individual neuron to tailor its response at each stage - by adjusting gene transcription and dramatically altering its cytoarchitecture
- raises several important questions:

•  How can each neuron discriminate between multiple, temporally organized, signals?
  
• How is the spatial organization of the neuronal response achieved?
  
• How can different neurons respond similarly to different signals, and how can the same neuron respond differently to the same signal depending on its spatial or
  temporal context?

The questions revolve around the molecular interactions that control the interplay between surface receptors and the cytoskeleton of the evolving neuron. It is therefore critical to understand how functional domains established within the neuron as a result of these interactions are controlled by, and in turn control, the interaction of the neuron with its environment, both at the level of cell morphology and at the level of gene
transcription. My research program is focussed on understanding how cell/cell communication regulates the establishment of functional domains within the cytoskeleton, and how they, in turn, regulate the neuronal response to its environment.