Clemens Cabernard is a SNSF-Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and jointly affiliated with the focal areas Neurobiology and Growth & Development. His group is interested in the cellular and molecular mechanism of asymmetric stem cell division. The lab is particularly interested in the following two key aspects of asymmetric cell division: (1) the mechanism of spindle orientation and (2) the positioning of the cleavage furrow. To investigate this, the Cabernard lab is using Drosophila melanogaster neuroblasts, the precursors of the fly central nervous system as a model. Neuroblasts divide in a stem cell-like manner repeatedly, generating a self-renewed neuroblast and a ganglion mother cell (GMC) in the process. The mitotic spindle invariably orients itself along the neuroblast intrinsic apical-basal polarity axis and asymmetric cleavage furrow positioning results in physical and molecular asymmetric cell division. To study this very dynamic cellular process, the lab is using high temporal and spatial resolution live imaging. This approach is combined with powerful traditional and non-traditional Drosophila genetics.