The skull protects and shields the head from external damage, and changes to skull shape and function dramatically impact surrounding organs, like the brain. Such is the case in a congenital anomaly called craniosynostosis, where bone and brain growth are decoupled, altering skull shape and impairing brain development. D'Juan Farmer and his team study cranial sutures, the structures that facilitate cooperative growth between the skull and the brain and are lost in patients with craniosynostosis. Farmer’s lab combines mouse and zebrafish models with cutting-edge genomic and imaging technologies to understand the developmental events that drive suture formation and how these processes go awry in craniosynostosis.