The precise regulation of gene expression is essential for almost all biological processes – it is an essential part of how cells and organisms respond to external signals and defines the diversity of cell types in our body.  Complex patterns of spatial and temporal gene expression are a central driving force for the progressive restriction of cell fates during embryogenesis. How a single genome can generate such a diversity of cells, and how transcriptional networks control and buffer the process of differentiation, are the two overarching questions in the lab. To tackle these, the group optimises and pushes genomic methods for use within complex multicellular embryos. We make use of the systematic, unbiased nature of genomics, the power of Drosophila genetics, high-resolution imaging and approaches from developmental and evolutionary biology to understand how the genome is regulated and organised during development.