Davis, JA; Koenig, AL; Lubert, A; Chestnut, B; Liu, F; Desai, SP; Winkler, T; Pociute, K; Choi, K; Sumanas, S. ETS transcription factor Etsrp Etv2 is required for lymphangiogenesis and directly regulates vegfr3 flt4 expression. Developmental Biology. 2018; 440(1):40-52.
 Lymphatic system is important for maintaining tissue fluid homeostasis and for immune defense. Defects in the formation or function of the lymphatic system result in different disorders in children and adults including lymphedema, lymphatic malformations and others. The mechanisms that regulate formation of lymphatic system, or lymphangiogenesis are still only partially understood. Research in the Sumanas lab has identified an evolutionarily conseved ETS transcription factor Etv2 which functions to initiate lymphangiogenesis. Zebrafish embryos deficient in Etv2 function showed absent or reduced formation of lymphatic system. The study further demonstrated that Etv2 directly regulates the expression of Vegfc receptor Flt4, which has been previously identified as a critical regulator of lymphangiogenesis in mouse and humans. These results argue that Etv2 is a novel critical regulator of lymphatic development and therefore presents a novel candidate drug target for treating different lymphatic disorders
Wang, Y; Pandey, RN; Riffle, S; Chintala, H; Wikenheiser-Brokamp, KA; Hegde, RS. The Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Activity of Eyes Absent Contributes to Tumor Angiogenesis and Tumor Growth. Molecular cancer therapeutics. 2018; 17(8):1659-1669.
EYA3 is a protein tyrosine phosphatase that promotes survival of cells after DNA damage. In this study, we show that host vascular endothelial cell EYA3 promotes tumor angiogenesis, and that tumor cell EYA3 promotes survival and proliferation of tumor cells. Pharmacological inhibition of the EYA3 protein tyrosine phosphatase activity attenuates tumor growth and tumor angiogenesis by targeting both host and tumor cells. Simultaneously targeting the tumor vasculature and tumor cells is an attractive therapeutic strategy since it could counter the development of the more aggressive phenotype known to emerge from conventional anti-angiogenic agents.
Zandvakili, A; Uhl, JD; Campbell, I; Salomone, J; Song, YC; Gebelein, B. The cis-regulatory logic underlying abdominal Hox-mediated repression versus activation of regulatory elements in Drosophila. Developmental Biology. 2019; 445(2):226-236.
The control of cell-specific gene expression by DNA regulatory elements is fundamental to normal development. In this study, we define how the organization of transcription factor binding sites within regulatory elements impacts the expression of key genes required for the specification of leg precursor cells and sensory organs during development. 
Xu, J; Liu, H; Lan, Y; Adam, M; Clouthier, DE; Potter, S; Jiang, R. Hedgehog signaling patterns the oral-aboral axis of the mandibular arch. eLife. 2019; 8.
Over 99% of living vertebrates today are jawed species, underscoring the huge advantage of the formation of the jaw to vertebrate evolution and survival. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism establishing the oral-aboral axis of the jaw during embryonic development. Through unbiased single-cell RNA sequencing analyses followed by hypothesis testing using tissue-specific functional genetic studies, this research uncovered a molecular network involving the sonic hedgehog and bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathways crucial for patterning oral-aboral axis of the mammalian jaw. Results of this study fill a long-standing gap in the knowledge regarding the mechanisms of vertebrate jaw formation and provide new insights into pathogenic mechanisms underlying craniofacial birth defects. 
Simsek, MF; Özbudak, EM. Spatial Fold Change of FGF Signaling Encodes Positional Information for Segmental Determination in Zebrafish. Cell Reports. 2018; 24(1):66-78.e8.
Simsek et al. developed a tissue explant system, and integrated it with quantitative measurements and computational modeling, to show that positional information for somite segmentation is encoded by FGF signaling. Wnt signaling acts permissively upstream of FGF signaling. Neighboring cells measure the spatial fold change of ppERK to accurately determine somite segment sizes.