I am interested in how regulatory interactions between genes lead to the patterning of embryos during development, and in how developmental patterning systems change over the course of evolutionary time. During my PhD I have focused on developing a systems level understanding of the "pair-rule" system that establishes segmental organisation in the fruit fly, Drosophila, using a combination of dynamical systems modelling and developmental genetics.

Clark E and Akam M (2016). Odd-paired controls frequency doubling in Drosophila segmentation by altering the pair-rule gene regulatory network. bioRxiv 052241; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/052241