生物学中的一个基本问题是如何从受精卵中产生表征成年动物的复杂的多细胞结构集合。在分子水平上的最新进展，尤其是在发育的遗传控制方面，是爆炸性的。这些进展代表着生物学科学开始迈向理解发展决定和由此产生的形态发生过程的分子机制的重大运动的开端。发展生物学的这一新动力源于过去十年在分子遗传学，免疫学和生物化学领域非常规方法学的进步。然而，它也源于经典的发展研究奠定的基础，细胞生物学和动物病毒学的快速发展以及源于原核系统的模型。这项工作越来越与人类疾病直接相关，包括致癌基因功能和遗传疾病。发展生物学研究生课程获得博
A fundamental problem in biology is how the complex set of multicellular structures that characterize an adult animal is generated from the fertilized egg. Recent advances at the molecular level, particularly with respect to the genetic control of development, have been explosive. These advances represent the beginning of a major movement in the biological sciences toward the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying developmental decisions and the resulting morphogenetic processes. This new thrust in developmental biology derives from the extraordinary methodological advances of the past decade in molecular genetics, immunology, and biochemistry. However, it also derives from groundwork laid by the classical developmental studies, the rapid advances in cell biology and animal virology, and from models borrowed from prokaryotic systems. Increasingly, the work is directly related to human diseases, including oncogene function and inherited genetic disease. The Department of Developmental Biology includes a critical mass of scientists who are leading the thrust in developmental biology and who can train new leaders in the attack on the fundamental problems of development. Department labs work on a wide variety of organisms from microbes to worms, flies, and mice. The dramatic evolutionary conservation of genes that regulate development makes the comparative approach of the research particularly effective. Scientists in the department labs have a very high level of interaction and collaboration. The discipline of developmental biology draws on biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, molecular biology, and genomics. People in the department have a major interest in regenerative medicine and stem cell biology.