How to build villi
A mechanical mechanism breaks symmetry in the fetal gut to start villus formation, much like water beading into droplets on a windshield. We called it mesenchymal dewetting.
Huycke et al., Cell, 2024Read in Cell →Defining the cellular logic of organ architecture
We combine long-term live imaging of whole mammalian tissues with genetic and biophysical approaches to find the rules that link cell behavior to organ geometry.
How do local cellular decisions generate organ-scale form?
During development, cells self-organize based on dynamic local signals, forces, and constraints. Yet organs emerge with remarkably reproducible shapes.
We investigate how mechanical and chemical interactions between cellular and extracellular systems coordinate robust architectural pattern and stability. In the mammalian intestine, this plays out in the emergence of millions of stereotyped tissue folds, the villi and crypts. We aim to define the rules that link cell-scale dynamics to organ-scale geometry, with implications for congenital birth defects, diseases where tissue architecture fails, and more complex organoid systems.
How do tissues remember their shape?
When tissues are damaged, their specialized architecture is often lost, leaving simplified or scarred structures.
The gastrointestinal tract can reconstruct complex form after injury. We study how tissues retain or recover the information needed to rebuild architecture, how this is coordinated at the cell level, and why these programs are absent in diseases that lead to persistent atrophy. The long-term goal is cellular modules that can be programmed to restore or reinforce organ structure.
How do systemic states constrain tissue geometry?
In vivo, self-organization unfolds within a physiological context shaped by maternal state and organismal energetics.
We investigate how maternal environment and organismal metabolism define the cues and energy landscapes that guide development, and how systemic and local states are translated into cellular programs that build form. In parallel, we study how acute damage or stress can have lasting consequences in other tissues.
Meet the lab
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Publications & Media
How to organize muscle
Molecular patterning couples with tissue mechanics to force the gut's smooth muscle layers into the alignment they need to move food in the right direction.
Huycke et al., Cell, 2019Read in Cell →How to grow bone
In the zebrafish skull, Hedgehog signaling drives growth along one edge of a bone, letting one axis expand independently and unique shapes emerge.
Huycke et al., Development, 2012Read in Development →Peer-reviewed research articles
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Opportunities
We are building an interdisciplinary team. Experimental biologists, engineers, physicists, and computational scientists are all welcome.
Postdocs
Expertise in developmental, cell, and/or regenerative biology, or an engineering, physics, or computational background with interest in training in experimental biology.
Send a cover letter on your research interests and fit, plus a CV with three references.
Ph.D. students
We take rotation students from the MCDB and PIBS/CMB Ph.D. programs. Email to discuss rotation projects.
Master's students
Apply through the Pathways or Traditional Master's programs in MCDB.
Undergraduates
We don't have undergraduate openings right now. Please check back later.
thuycke@umich.edu