Ondine Cleaver

Professor, Lee Fikes Chair in Biomedical Sciences

Department of Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Editor in Chief, Developmental Biology

Prof. Cleaver carried out her PhD studies at the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Dr. Paul A. Krieg, investigating formation of the cardiovascular system in Xenopus laevis. She then did her postdoctoral work at Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas A. Melton, elucidating vascular signals during pancreas development and islet formation. Since 2005, Dr. Cleaver has focused on understanding how organs and their blood vessels grow coordinately with each other. Her lab has uncovered the role of both GTPase regulation during de novo lumen formation in the forming dorsal aortae in mouse embryos. More recently, she and her lab has uncovered the requirement for the Hippo pathway in sensing biomechanical signals, such as that exerted by hemodynamic flow. Dr. Cleaver’s contributions include publications in Science, Developmental Cell, Disease Models and Mechanisms, Genes and Development, Angiogenesis, and Development. She currently serves at Editor in Chief for Developmental Biology and serves in a number of capacities in the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB).