Work in the Maas Laboratory focuses in two areas, both of which revolve around the problem of how vertebrate organs form. The first research area, embodied in a large, new and highly interdisciplinary research Consortium approach called SysCODE, or Systems based-Consortium for Organ Design and Engineering, is aimed at organ regeneration.  The second and more long-standing research area involves mechanistic investigations into Pax and Hox genes, their respective gene networks, and the genetic control vertebrate eye, craniofacial, pancreatic and kidney development.