The Niswander lab focuses on the neural tube, which forms the embryonic brain and spinal cord, and on the common and severe birth defect when the neural tube fails to close called neural tube defects. We approach this from the viewpoint of genetics, epigenetics, and environmental factors and how these converge to affect phenotypic expression. We are using the mouse embryo as a model of human development to ask what are the genes that regulate NT closure and how do these novel genes function. Time-lapse imaging is expanding our understanding of the normal cell behaviors that drive NT closure. This imaging platform then allows us to determine the link between novel molecular regulators and cell behaviors and how these molecular/cellular changes affect the highly coordinated process of neural tube closure.