Our long-term goal is to determine how the animal tissue extracellular matrices (ECM) known as basal laminae (BL) self-assemble and interact with cell surface receptors to mediate normal development and disease pathogenesis. The experimental approaches used to address the mechanisms are those of molecular biology, mouse genetics and cell biology. We often combine a mouse model (reflecting the in vivo state) with a tissue/organ culture model (in vitro) in combination with biochemically-characterized recombinant BL proteins, the latter pair permitting a more mechanistic analysis.