Thomas Schultheiss is an expert in Organogenesis and developmental biology. Organogenesis and developmental biology The fields of Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering, which aim to generate tissues in the laboratory in order to replace and repair damaged organs, hold great promise for treating many congenital and chronic diseases. In order to generate tissues and organs in the lab, it essential to understand how these tissues are normally built in the developing embryo. Schultheiss' laboratory studies how organs are built in the embryo, from the first steps when embryonic cells adopt tissue-specific identities, through the later stages when the functional organ is assembled from its various cellular components. Current work focuses on the formation of the kidney, gonads, and hematopoietic system, using the avian embryo (chicken and quail) as our main experimental system. Schultheiss has a strong interest in understanding basic embryological processes, such as embryonic patterning, cell differentiation, cell migration, and morphogenesis.
