Biography

As a member of the Neuroscience Education Department I teach both science and medical students in neuroscience, anatomy and embryology. I am the assessment sub-board Chair of Undergraduate Neuroscience and the Course Lead of the MSci in Neuroscience. My main research interest is how brain anatomy is built during vertebrate embryogenesis. Our brain is arguably the most complex of all organs, but it is generated from a single cell - the fertilised egg - through cell multiplication and cell type diversification. I am particularly interested in the formation of the circumventricular organs, sensory and neurosecretory structures that are located around the third and fourth ventricle of the brain and that lack a tight blood-brain barrier.

Please see my Research Staff Profile for more detail

Find out more about my research:

Transcriptional control of forebrain regionalisation

Key publications:

• Kiecker et al., 2001. A morphogen gradient of Wnt/b-catenin signalling regulates anteroposterior neural patterning in Xenopus. Development.
• Kiecker et al., 2004. Hedgehog signalling from the ZLI regulates diencephalic regional identity. Nature Neuroscience.
• Robertshaw et al., 2013. Irx3 and Pax6 establish differential competence for Shh-mediated induction of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons of the thalamus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.

Key collaborators:

• Prof Anthony Graham, King's College London
• Prof Corinne Houart, King's College London