Introduction

Research Groups

Select Research Group Head Prof. Sir Tom Blundell Prof. Kevin Brindle Dr Bill Broadhurst Dr Guy Brown Dr Mark Carrington Prof. Paul Dupree Prof. Gerard Evan - Head of Dept Prof. Richard Farndale Dr Giorgio Favrin Dr Jenny Gallop Dr Nick Gay Dr Andrew Grace Dr Jules Griffin Dr Brian Hendrich Dr Andrew Hesketh Dr Robin Hesketh Dr Matt Higgins Dr Florian Hollfelder Dr Hee-Jeon Hong Prof. Chris Howe Dr Marko Hyvonen Prof. Steve Jackson Dr Tony Jackson Prof. Richard Jackson Prof. Ernest Laue Prof. Peter Leadlay Dr Kathryn Lilley Dr Karen Lipkow Dr Rick Livesey Prof. Ben Luisi Dr Sarah Lummis Dr Juan Mata Dr John McCafferty Prof. Jim Metcalfe Dr Masanori Mishima Dr Eric Miska Dr Tom Monie Dr Helen Mott Dr Natasha Murzina Dr Daniel Nietlispach Dr Darerca Owen Prof. Steve Oliver Dr Luca Pellegrini Dr Markus Ralser Dr Nick Robinson Prof. George Salmond Dr Deirdre Scadden Dr José Silva Prof. Austin Smith Prof. Chris Smith Dr Nancy Standart Prof. Dame Jean Thomas Dr Aviva Tolkovsky Dr Martin Welch Dr Joyce Wong Dr Nianshu Zhang

Service & Research Support Facilities

Select by Subject or Manager DNA Sequencing Facility . . . . . Mr John Lester _______________________________ Quantitative Proteomics . . . . . Dr Kathryn Lilley _______________________________ Proteomics Core Services . . . . . Dr Mike Deery _______________________________ Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry . . . . . Dr Len Packman _______________________________ Metabolomics . . . . . Dr Jules Griffin _______________________________ Baculovirus Facility . . . . . Dr Darerca Owen _______________________________ Biophysics Facility . . . . . Dr Katherine Stott _______________________________ Crystallographic X-ray Facility . . . . . Dr Dima Chirgadze _______________________________ NMR spectroscopy . . . . . Dr Daniel Nietlispach _______________________________ Fermentation Facility . . . . . Dr Nianshu Zhang _______________________________ Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Services . . . . . Dr Jenny Barna _______________________________ Computer & IT Support . . . . . Dr Erik Timmers _______________________________

Past members last known active weblink

Select past member of Department Dr Stephen Bell Prof. Jonathan Blackburn Dr David Brown Dr Pak-Lee Chau Dr Hal Dixon (deceased) Dr Jessica Downs Prof. David Ellar Dr Paul Kemp Dr Simon Lovell Dr Kenji Mizuguchi Dr Massimo Paoli Prof. Richard Perham Dr Peter Reynolds Dr Philip Rubery Dr Gerry Smith Dr Margaret Sunde Prof. Jamie Vandenberg Dr Kira Weissman

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Transcriptional Control of Stem Cell Fate

Research Grouping: Structural and molecular cell biology | Developmental and regenerative biology and medicine

NuRD complex and differentiation

Aims
The long-term goal of the group is to define how chromatin modifying, transcriptional silencing complexes help control cell fate choices and lineage commitment during mammalian development.

Background
Cells of early mammalian embryos have the potential to develop into any adult cell type, and are thus said to be pluripotent. Pluripotency is gradually lost during embryogenesis as cells begin to commit to specific developmental pathways. While restriction of developmental potential is often associated with repression of inappropriate genetic programmes, a causal role for epigenetic silencing during early lineage commitment remains to be defined. My lab has found that Mbd3, a crucial and highly conserved component of the NuRD co-repressor complex, is necessary for gene silencing and maturation of pluripotent cells to a differentiation-competent state during early murine development, and for differentiation of ES cells (see figure below). This work has shed new light on a role for epigenetic silencing in the maintenance of pluripotent cells and in cell fate commitment during development.

The NuRD and mSin3 co-repressor complexes Larger image in new window		Neurons and neural precursors from ES cells in culture Implanting embryo stained for trophectoderm (Eomes in green), pluripotent cells (Oct4 in blue) and primitive endoderm (Gata6 in red)

Approaches and Progress
We study pluripotent cells in early murine embryos, as well as embryonic stem cells. We are using a combined approach involving biochemistry, genetics, ES cell manipulation, in vitro differentiation, developmental biology, and gene expression analyses.

Lab members
Dominika Dudzinska, Anthony Hynes-Allen, Erin Knock, Paulina Latos, Donna Leaford, Patrick McDonal, Aoife O'Shaugnessy, Nicola Reynolds

References