My group, based in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, investigates the basic principles underlying animal cell morphogenesis. Precise control of cell shape is key to cell physiology, and cell shape deregulation is at the heart of many pathological disorders including cancer. We investigate this using an interdisciplinary approach that combines molecular and cell biology, quantitative imaging, mechanical measurements and physical modelling. We focus on the cell cortex, a thin actomyosin network that lies under the plasma membrane and determines the shape of most animal cells. The cortex enables the cell to resist externally applied stresses and to exert mechanical work. As such, it plays a role in normal physiology during events involving cell deformation, such as cell division and migration. Research questions I plan to explore in collaboration with LMB scientists include how the structural and mechanical properties of actin networks constrain possible actin organisation states, how these in turn define the landscape of shapes displayed by cells and how cells regulate their morphogenetic landscape during state transitions.