Skip to main content
Overview
Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences112 

Biography

Regulation of Epithelial Stem Cells

My research focusses on the regulation of epithelial stem cells. The epithelia that line the surface of the skin and our internal organs are constantly turned over. Cells are lost from the surface and replaced by the proliferation of stem cells. These stem cells must be tightly regulated as an overproduction of new cells can lead to cancer, and the majority of cancers are of epithelial origin.

I use the stem cells of the fruit fly intestine to better understand epithelial stem cell regulation. These fly intestinal stem cells behave in similar ways to mammalian epithelial stem cells and are regulated by many of the same, conserved signalling pathways. Combined with the powerful genetic tools available in the fly, this conservation makes them an excellent model.

Current projects include identification and characterization of new signals regulating epithelial stem cells and analysing how crosstalk between known pathways regulates cell fate.

Research interests

  • Stem Cells
  • Intestine
  • Chromatin
  • Ageing
  • Cancer
  • Development
  • Imaging
  • Cell Biology
  • Epithelial Stem Cells
  • Cell Signalling

Research groups

  • Animal Cells and Systems

Publications

Chapter in book

Journal Article

Supervision students