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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Embryo Stem Cell Biology

Research Grouping: Developmental and regenerative biology and medicine

Professor Smith is the Chair of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research.

Characterising the role of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) in embryonic stem cell self-renewal

The main objective of this group is to characterise the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the self-renewal and differentiation of multipotential embryo stem cells, of mouse, rat and human origin. Stem cells are defined by the ability both to produce identical daughter cells (self-renewal), and to produce progeny with more restricted fates (commitment and differentiation). This property of stem cells underpins growth and diversification during development and sustains homeostasis and repair processes throughout adult life. An understanding of molecular mechanisms which govern stem cell fate is therefore of fundamental significance in cell and developmental biology and the capabilities arising from such knowledge have major biomedical applications. Embryonic stem (ES) cells, which are derived directly from the pluripotential cells of the earlymouse embryo, can be propagated and manipulated in vitro whilst retaining their full potential for multi-lineage development. Our strategy is to exploit these prototypic stem cell cultures for the identification and characterisation of key regulatory molecules, to determine the significance of these molecules in vitro and in vivo, and thence to develop improved methods of stem cell propagation and manipulation.

Lab members
Ornella Barrandon, Joerg Betschinger, Kathryn Blair, Sarah Bough, Gloryn Chia, Mary Chol, Jose Da Silva, David Danovi, Anna Falk, Masayo Fujiwara, Astrid Gillich, Alexander Goncharevich, Nils Grabole, Claire Grant, Ge Guo, Peter Humphreys, Ken Jones, Tuzer Kalkan, Hiroyuki Kishimoto, Aryna Luzhynskaya, Deborah McGhee, Gillian Morrison, Elisabete Nascimento, Steve Pollard, Mila Roode, Moira Rybicki,Stefan Stricker, Yasuhiro Takashima, David Tan, Thorold Theunissen, Jamie Trott, Tatsuya Ohata, Anouk van Oosten, Balazs Varga, Rachael Walker, Jenny Walsham, Jason Wray, Anton Wutz

References