MRC Scientist and Professor of Developmental Cell Biology
Force sensing and growth of skeletal muscle
We want to understand how muscle activity, and particularly the physical force experienced by muscle during its contraction, influences muscle growth and maintenance. Loss or alteration of skeletal muscle is increasingly implicated in conditions such as age-related muscle weakening (sarcopenia), type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer cachexia, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and AIDS. It is therefore essential to understand how muscle mass and character are controlled. Exercise and nutrition are important environmental factors that interact with an individual's genetic make-up throughout the life course to maintain muscle, heart and whole-body health. By studying the basic molecular genetic mechanisms controlling muscle growth in a simple system, the transparent zebrafish, we hope to find fundamental mechanisms controlling muscle maintenance in all vertebrates, including people. Image: Single cells (green, visualized by injection of DNA encoding GFP) in a live transgenic zebrafish embryo with marked skeletal muscle (red).
Stem cell heterogeneity and maintenance of skeletal muscle
Our work has revealed distinct populations of muscle stem cells in the zebrafish that are involved in the formation and growth of several different kinds of muscle fibres. We use molecular genetics, advanced microscopy and embryological manipulations to elucidate how muscle stem cells are controlled. An important aspect of these studies is how muscle cells interact with skeletal, nervous, vascular and immune systems to build and maintain a healthy musculoskeletal tissue system. Image: Five-day zebrafish larva showing muscle (green, myosin), stem cells (red) and nuclei (blue)
Heart and skeletal muscle regeneration
Our extensive experience in skeletal muscle can provide insights into cardiac muscle growth, maintenance and regeneration. Too much or too little myocardial growth cause hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies, respectively. Lab members also study diseases, such as inherited muscular dystrophies or cardiomyopathies, to understand their causes and how they may be mitigated or cured. Currently, we primarily model human disease in the zebrafish but also use other model organisms such as Xenopus, chicken or mouse and, working in collaboration with other national and international teams, aim to apply our work in humans. Image: Live adult transgenic zebrafish with Green Fluorescent Protein in the muscle (green).
Past postdocs
Elisabeth Ehler
Lesley Robson
Xiaopeng Li
Stéphanie Bayol
Richard Hampson
Andrew Brack
Marion Schuierer
Chris Martin
Chris Mann
Jonathon Leslie
Orli Yogev
Fernanda Bajanca
Yaniv Hinits
Husam Hebaishi
Giorgia Bergamin
Roberta Da Costa Escaleira
Seetaramaiah Attili
Vladimir Snetkov
Massimo Ganassi
Past PhD students
Jonathon Blake
Chris Blagden
Sophie Chargé
Julie Groves
Christina Hammond
Daniel Osborn
James Minchin
Jana Koth
Shukolpa Roy
Duvaraka Kulaveerasingam