BDRC SEMINAR SERIES
David Wilkinson
Developmental Biology & Cancer Programme, ICH
Friday 5th February 2016 1pm – 2pm
June Lloyd Seminar Room (PUW4)
Border Control: roles and regulation of boundary
formation
Abstract
The generated of organised tissues during development requires the formation of borders
which demarcate cells with distinct identity. In some tissues, borders also organise signalling
centres that regulate cell differentiation. Eph receptor and ephrin signalling underlies the
formation of sharp borders in many tissues, and when disrupted can lead to disease, such as
tumour metastasis. Our studies focus on the mechanisms and roles of boundary formation
during segmentation of the developing hindbrain. This talk will discuss mechanisms by
which hindbrain boundaries underlie tissue patterning, and experimental and computer
modelling approaches to elucidate how Eph-ephrin signalling underlies cell segregation and
border sharpening.
Biosketch
David Wilkinson has an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and carried out PhD research
on Dictyostelium development, both at the University of Leeds. He then carried out postdoc
research on cell differentiation in sea urchin embryos at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in
Philadelphia, and then at NIMR where he pioneered the use of in situ hybridisation to study
gene expression in mouse embryogenesis. He was appointed as a Group Leader at NIMR in
1989, and transferred to the Francis Crick Institute in 2015. His studies have focussed on the
regulation of boundary formation and neurogenesis during hindbrain development.