Robustness of retinoic acid regulatory homeostasis during early development

Retinoic acid levels are tightly regulated during early embryonic development to achieve fine-tuning of the instructive and permissive signals regulating multiple developmental processes including head formation. We aim to identify the key mechanisms underlying the homeostatic regulation and tuning of the retinoic acid signaling levels, the disruption of which in the head lead to wide ranging developmental malformations including microcephaly and other craniofacial defects.