Liu Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr Karen Liu
The Liu laboratory studies genetics and embryonic development: in
particular, neural crest contributions to the cranial skeleton.
Current work in the laboratory uses mouse and frog to bring together developmental biology and novel chemical genetics techniques.
These topics draw on Karen Liu's pre-doctoral training in mouse genetics and Xenopus embryology, and her postdoctoral work, which focused on adapting chemical tools to study signalling in development.
While a postdoc, she was able to show in vivo validation of ‘inducible stabilization’, a broadly applicable method for making drug-sensitive proteins.
Recent work from her lab has identified Wnt signalling differences distinguishing differentiation of the frontal and parietal bones in the skull. Her approach combines classical embryological experiments with genetic mutants (including drug-dependent alleles); these assays are complemented by molecular and biochemical methods.
The Liu lab is also developing next-generation drug dependent protein alleles: target include Wnt pathway proteins beta-catenin and dishevelled.
Work on the Wnt/PCP effector fuzzy has led to a new study linking PCP and morphogenesis in the skull, as well as plans to expand the repertoire of chemical tools for regulating PCP genes in vivo.
Laboratory Members
Post doctoral fellows
Dr Sandra Gonzalez Malagon
PhD student
Mr Basil Yannakoudakis
MSc student
Ms Aida Mesbahi
BDS students
Mr Willis Barrell
Ms Yvonne Yeung
Ms Zenab Sher
Contact for further information
Email: karen.liu@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7188 8035