My lab is interested in the developmental, molecular and cellular underpinnings of cardiac and skeletal muscle progenitors. Our studies have been primarily recognized for their novel insights into the link between head muscle and heart development during vertebrate embryogenesis. This search for developmental mechanisms driving organogenesis has paved the way toward a deeper understanding of birth defects. I will describe results describing how a set of transcription factors express in the cardio-pharyngeal mesoderm acts to control heart and craniofacial morphogenesis, and how this regulatory network is linked to the etiology of DiGeorge syndrome. At the end I will describe how we bridge between developmental biology and the emerging field of regenerative medicine, by shifting our attention to adult heart diseases. The development of novel procedures that can facilitate cardiomyocyte renewal is a major challenge in our group.