Dr. Abitua studies the development of the African turquoise killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, a promising model organism to investigate cell migration in vivo. He seeks to understand how cells aggregate through a mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) during embryogenesis. Using light sheet microscopy, he plans to image and analyze this highly dynamic phenomenon in order to make predictions about how cells decide to change their behavior during MET, an understudied process that is casual for malignancy.