Adult tissues rely on stem cells to ensure that tissue turnover is compensated for by the production of new cells. Stem cells divide to give rise to these new cells but must also give rise to themselves to maintain a stem cell population over the lifetime of the organism. 

Our lab studies how the daughters of these stem cell divisions choose to adopt one fate over the other, how individual stem cells can be more likely to contribute more to the total stem cell pool than others, and whether there are underlying differences among stem cells that explain their future fate. We use the fruit fly to study these questions, taking advantage of hugely powerful genetic tools, live imaging, and a well-characterised stem cell population that is easy to visualise. Our long-term aim is to understand how a single stem cell integrates its environmental cues, cell cycle and metabolic state to make a fate decision.