# C. elegans gastrulation: A model for understanding apical constriction mechanisms

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $179,432

## 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. Although apical
constriction was recognized more than a century ago, fundamental questions about mechanisms of apical
constriction remain unanswered. Research in this laboratory focuses on understanding how cells accomplish
this fundamental 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 a series of projects to answer how the molecules that contribute
to apical constriction generate and transmit the forces that change cell shapes, what triggers changes in cell
shape, how developmental patterning mechanisms deploy cell biological players with the necessary spatial
and temporal precision, and to identify and understand novel mechanisms that make important contributions to
apical constriction. The laboratory has developed several key 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:** 9850443
- **Project number:** 1R35GM134838-01
- **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:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $179,432
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850443

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850443, C. elegans gastrulation: A model for understanding apical constriction mechanisms (1R35GM134838-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850443. Licensed CC0.

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