Animal Cells and Systems

Group Coordinator: Dr Patricia Muller

We are a grouping of animal biologists working on fundamental biological questions, most of which underpin biomedical interests relevant to the bioeconomy.

Our research is divided into three thematic areas:

Mechanisms of development and ageing - including stem cell biology and age-related disease

Cell to system organization and function – focusing on the cytoskeleton, membrane biology and signalling from subcellular to whole animal systems

Cell and tissue biotechnology – incorporating tissue engineering, development and application of in vitro models, and biomarkers of health and disease

Our strengths are in basic bioscience and biotechnology. We develop and use state-of-the-art technologies including advanced bioimaging, omics-based approaches and computational strategies.

We have strong interdisciplinary links with other science and medical disciplines within and beyond our faculty, including major industries, HE Institutes and NHS Trusts. This enables us to realise the value and impact of our fundamental research in underpinning advances for the health and wellbeing of our society.

Affiliated Members: Dr Martin Schröder, Dr Sushma Grellscheid, Prof Paul Denny

Recent Publications

Li, Zhi, Lamb, Rebecca, Coles, Mark C., Bennett, Clare L. & Ambler, Carrie A. (2021). Inducible ablation of CD11c+ cells to determine their role in skin wound repair. Immunology 163(1): 105-111.

Maruyama, Yohei, Sugawa, Mitsuhiro, Yamaguchi, Shin, Davies, Tim, Osaki, Toshihisa, Kobayashi, Takuya, Yamagishi, Masahiko, Takeuchi, Shoji, Mishima, Masanori & Yajima, Junichiro (2021). CYK4 relaxes the bias in the off-axis motion by MKLP1 kinesin-6. Communications Biology 4: 180.

Wheelwright, M., Whittle, C.R. & Riabinina, O. (2021). Olfactory systems across mosquito species. Cell and Tissue Research

Obara, Ilona, Telezhkin, Vsevolod, Alrashdi, Ibrahim & Chazot, Paul L. (2020). Histamine, histamine receptors and neuropathic pain relief. British Journal of Pharmacology 177(3): 580-599.

Allen, A.M., Neville, M.C., Birtles, S., Croset, V., Treiber, C.D., Waddell, S. & Goodwin, S.F. (2020). A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the adult Drosophila ventral nerve cord. eLife 9: e54074.

Chisholm, David, Lamb, Rebecca, Pallett, Tommy, Affleck, Valerie, Holden, Claire, Marrison, Joanne, O'Toole, Peter, Ashton, Peter, Newling, Katherine, Steffen, Andreas, Nelson, Amanda, Mahler, Christoph, Valentine, Roy, Blacker, Thomas, Bain, Angus John, Girkin, John M, Marder, Todd B, Whiting, Andrew & Ambler, Carrie A (2019). Photoactivated cell-killing involving a low molecular weight, donor-acceptor diphenylacetylene. Chemical Science 10(17): 4673-4683.

Worfolk, JC, Bell, S, Simpson, LD, Carne, NA, Francis, SL, Engelbertsen, V, Brown, AP, Walker, J, Viswanath, YK & Benham, AM (2019). Elucidation of the AGR2 interactome in esophageal adenocarcinoma cells identifies a redox sensitive chaperone hub for the quality control of MUC-5AC. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 31(15): 1117-1132.

Schinaman, Joseph M., Rana, Anil, Ja, William W., Clark, Rebecca I. & Walker, David W. (2019). Rapamycin modulates tissue aging and lifespan independently of the gut microbiota in Drosophila. Scientific Reports 9(1): 7824.

Hirsch, Sophia M., Sundaramoorthy, Sriramkumar, Davies, Tim, Zhuravlev, Yelena, Waters, Jennifer C., Shirasu-Hiza, Mimi, Dumont, Julien & Canman, Julie C. (2018). FLIRT: fast local infrared thermogenetics for subcellular control of protein function. Nature Methods 15(11): 921-923.

Doupé, D.P., Marshall, O.J, Dayton, H., Brand, A.H. & Perrimon, N. (2018). Drosophila intestinal stem and progenitor cells are major sources and regulators of homeostatic niche signals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(48): 12218-12223.

Abaci, Hasan Erbil, Coffman, Abigail, Doucet, Yanne, Chen, James, Jacków, Joanna, Wang, Etienne, Guo, Zongyou, Shin, Jung U., Jahoda, Colin A. & Christiano, Angela M. (2018). Tissue engineering of human hair follicles using a biomimetic developmental approach. Nature Communications 9(1): 5301.

Resnik-Docampo, Martin, Koehler, Christopher L., Clark, Rebecca I., Schinaman, Joseph M., Sauer, Vivien, Wong, Daniel M., Lewis, Sophia, D’Alterio, Cecilia, Walker, David W. & Jones, D. Leanne (2017). Tricellular junctions regulate intestinal stem cell behaviour to maintain homeostasis. Nature Cell Biology 19(1): 52-59.

Ciechomska, M., O'Reilly, S., Przyborski, S., Oakley, F., Bogunia-Kubik, K. & van Laar, J.M. (2016). Histone demethylation and toll‐like receptor 8–dependent cross‐talk in monocytes promotes transdifferentiation of fibroblasts in systemic sclerosis via Fra‐2. Arthritis & Rheumatology 68(6): 1493-1504.

Virk, B., Jia, J., Maynard, C.A., Raimundo, A., Lefebvre, J., Richards, S.A., Chetina, N., Liang, Y., Helliwell, N., Cipinska, M. & Weinkove, D. (2016). Folate acts in E. coli to accelerate C. elegans aging independently of bacterial biosynthesis. Cell Reports 14(7): 1611-1620.

Health Beyond Biomedicine

Read Durham University's Biomedicine policy document, two of the six projects are lead by ACaS group member Dr Paul Chazot. The main brief can be read here. Beyond Biomedicine and a short video can be found here.