Lance A. Davidson

Life Under Pressure: Dissection of Cross-Phyla Metazoan Responses to Extreme Hydrostatic Pressure Reveals Pressure-Protective Heat Shock Acclimation

This study examines how shallow-dwelling Xenopus laevis embryos respond to high hydrostatic pressure and identifies heat shock pathway activation as a conserved protective mechanism across phyla.

Supracellular Mechanics and Counter-Rotational Bilateral Flows Orchestrate Posterior Morphogenesis

The paper identifies a ventral extracellular matrix network critical for posterior tissue rotation during Xenopus tailbud development through live imaging and perturbation experiments.

Shape, Strain, and Stability: Epithelia Under High Strain

This study investigates strain heterogeneity in Xenopus laevis epithelial explants under uniform mechanical strain, finding that cell intrinsic material properties drive variable mechanical responses.

The TissueTractor, a device for applying large strains to tissues and cells for simultaneous high-resolution live cell microscopy.

Inferring active and passive mechanical drivers of epithelial convergent extension

This study uses simulations and live cell imaging to distinguish active and passive mechanical drivers of convergent extension in developing tissues.

Supracellular contractility in Xenopus laevis embryonic epithelia regulated by extracellular nucleotides and the purinergic G-protein coupled receptor P2Y2.

The paper identifies extracellular nucleotides ATP and UTP as drivers of epithelial contractility in Xenopus embryos, mediated by the P2Y2 receptor.

Furry is required for cell movements during gastrulation and functionally interacts with NDR1

This study shows that Fry is essential for cell movements during Xenopus gastrulation and interacts functionally with NDR1 kinase in morphogenesis.

Tissue mechanics drives epithelialization, goblet cell regeneration, and restoration of a mucociliated epidermis on the surface of embryonic aggregates.

This study shows that tissue mechanics drive the regeneration of a mucociliated epithelium from mesenchymal cells after tissue disruption.

Non-junctional Cadherin3 regulates cell migration and contact inhibition of locomotion via domain-dependent opposing regulations of Rac1.

This study shows that non-junctional cadherin3 regulates cell migration and contact inhibition of locomotion by oppositely controlling Rac1 through extracellular and cytoplasmic domains without cell-cell contact.

Expansion of apical extracellular matrix underlies the morphogenesis of a recently evolved structure

The paper investigates how the expansion of the apical extracellular matrix (aECM) contributes to the formation of a novel structure in D. melanogaster.