# C. elegans Gastrulation: a Model for Understanding Apical Constriction Mechanisms

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $306,628

## Abstract

Abstract
Apical constriction is a change in cell shape that drives critical morphogenetic events, including gastrulation
and branching morphogenesis in diverse animals and neural tube formation in vertebrates. Fundamental
questions about mechanisms of apical constriction remain unanswered. Research in this laboratory focuses on
understanding how cells accomplish this change in shape. Apical constriction is being studied to uncover
insights into how animals are shaped, and to contribute to a foundation of basic science leading to improved
diagnosis and prevention of neural tube defects. This proposal will support projects to answer how the
molecules that contribute to apical constriction generate and transmit the forces that change cell shapes, how
a cell’s actin architecture is dynamically altered, how developmental patterning mechanisms deploy cell
biological players with the necessary spatial and temporal precision, and how novel mechanisms contribute to
apical constriction. The laboratory has developed technical innovations to address critical barriers to progress
in this field, and the proposed projects build on the lab's strength in dissecting cell biological mechanisms of
development more generally. Study of apical constriction intersects with some of the major themes in cell and
developmental biology including cell polarization, control of motor activity, and dynamic control of forces, in a
complex in vivo context. The proposed projects seek to combine in a single model system the tools that are
valuable to different model systems, plus the new tools that the lab has developed, to produce unique and
sustained contributions to unraveling mechanisms that are relevant to critical morphogenetic events.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10841952
- **Project number:** 2R35GM134838-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBERT P GOLDSTEIN
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $306,628
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2028-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10841952

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10841952, C. elegans Gastrulation: a Model for Understanding Apical Constriction Mechanisms (2R35GM134838-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-14 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10841952. Licensed CC0.

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