title: A developmental biologist's "outside-the-cell" thinking.
abstract: A major gap in our understanding of cell biology is how cells generate and interact with their surrounding extracellular matrix. Studying this problem during development has been particularly fruitful. Recent work on the basement membrane in developmental systems is transforming our view of this matrix from one of a static support structure to that of a dynamic scaffold that is regularly remodeled to actively shape tissues and direct cell behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708 david.sherwood@duke.edu.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Sherwood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000166:cytology; D003585:Cell Biology; D015509:Developmental Biology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology*