The Ferrell lab is working to understand the design principles of biochemical switches, timers, and oscillators, especially those that control the cell cycle.

The drawing above is of a 2-cell Xenopus laevis embryo, from Nieuwkoop and Faber (1994) via Xenbase. Xenopus embryos and extracts are particularly powerful systems for quantitative studies of cell cycle regulation, and much of the lab's work makes use of these systems.