The diversity of life-forms that exists today is derived from a single common ancestor. This common ancestor had a prototypic cell cycle control network (the computer program that orchestrates cell division). This control network has changed extensively during evolution to adapt to the needs of myriad modern organisms. Single celled organisms just divide & divide as quickly as possible.
Their control networks optimise growth rate in a changing environment. Multicellular organisms, including humans, have added a huge amount of spatial control and cell-cell communicaton to enable the development and maintenance of complex body patterns and organ structures.
When these control networks break down, we get cancer (an evolutionary disease where our cells evolve back towards the prototypic state). We aim to understand how control networks rewire during evolution. We study this problem with a variety of approaches:
