Research Projects

I study the hormonal control of metamorphosis in the common clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris). Specifically, I focus on the transformations in gastrointestinal anatomy and function as the larvae undergo the broader metamorphic changes that prepare them to settle in the reef.

In Taiwan, the use of Chlorpyrifos (陶斯松) is under ongoing phaseout, with a total ban planned by 2026 . Within South East Asia, its use has been officially banned in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, though not yet in the Philippines and Indonesia, despite this pesticide having such "significant adverse human health and/or environmental effects, that global action is warranted" according to the latest Stockholm Convention's Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee review
By using metamorphosing larvae of the common clownfish Amphiprion ocellaris as a model system of Thyroid Hormone endocrine regulation in fish, we investigated the endocrine disrupting potential of this persistent organic polluter in fish.

In humans, mice, and other mammals key internal organs such as the gut, lungs, pancreas, liver, thyroid, thymus, and bladder (and many others!) all derive from the same embryonic tissue: the endoderm. The development of all of these structures thus depends on a same set of early cells, and on the developmental instructions provided to them by the embryo. To study what these instructions might be, I am currently investigating the modes of development that endoderm cells (and their progenitors) execute when they can not rely on them. That is, when they are made to self-organise in vitro in a dish in the lab. Even on their own, endoderm cells emerge with timings and patterns comparable to what happens when they are on the embryo, and eventually form patterned structures in many way similar to the embryonic gut tube. My research touches on topics of endoderm and epithelial identity, self-organisation, patterning, and fundamental mammalian developmental biology.