Beatriz Ibarra is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Atit lab. She was recently awarded an NRSA F31 fellowship for her project which explores the role of Erk/MapK signaling during Wnt signaling-dependent skull bone development. 1 in 3 birth defects are in the craniofacial region and understanding the signaling requirements that ensure normal craniofacial development is critical to the development of therapeutic targets and preventative treatments.  Demonstrating a link between the Wnt and Erk signaling pathways during skull bone fate decisions  in vivo will improve our understanding of normal skull bone development and would be applicable to a larger community that studies Wnt signaling and cell fate in other disease contexts, including cancer.