Developmental

Developmental

Cambridge has a long history of research in developmental biology and this continues to be one of the pioneering fields within neuroscience. To understand how cells and molecules function in the context of a developing organism, developmental biologists make use of a wide range of techniques, including molecular biology, cell biology, imaging, biochemistry, structural biology, genomics, bioinformatics, evolutionary studies and physiology. This offers the opportunity for many collaborative interactions, including the departments of Biochemistry, Pathology, Genetics, Physiology Development and Neuroscience, Veterinary Medicine, Zoology and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research. Developmental biology is a particular strength of the Gurdon Institute. Developmental mechanisms are highly conserved between species, with researchers working on organisms as diverse as Arabidopsis, Caenorhabditis elegans, chick, Drosophila, mouse, Xenopus and zebrafish to study problems such as the genetic and epigenetic bases of pluripotency, the mechanisms underlying cell migration and axon pathfinding and the transcriptional networks involved in the formation of tissues ranging from the testes to the neocortex.

Principal investigators

• Dr Richard Adams
  My group is interested in the mechanisms of morphogenesis that shape the early central nervous system. Using zebrafish as a developmental model, we image the movements of many hundreds of cells using time-lapse micoscopy. Applying methods of image...
• Dr Duncan Astle
  Duncan is a Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow and Director of Studies at Robinson College. Within the School of Clinical Medicine he is the Chair of the NIHR BioResource, a...
• Professor Topun Austin
  I am a Consultant Neonatologist in Cambridge and Honorary Professor of Neurophotonics at University College London and have an interest in brain injury and imaging in the newborn. I lead the Evelyn Perinatal Imaging Centre (EPIC), based at the Ro...
• Dr Sara Baker
  I am interested in the role of pre-frontal functions (i.e., impulse control) in the formation and expression of beliefs especially during early childhood. I use behavioral and physiological measures (eye-tracking) to examine how children learn to...
• Professor Clare Baker
  We are investigating a broad range of questions relating to the development of neurogenic placodes and the neural crest, two embryonic cell populations in vertebrates that together build the entire peripheral nervous system. Current projects inclu...
• Dr Kate Baker
  Genomic technology is now enabling the identification of many novel causes of neurodevelopmental disorder. This provides a new starting point for understanding the relationships between specific genetic mutation, neuronal function, brain developm...
• Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
  The Autism Research Centre (ARC), of which I am Director, has 6 programs of research, all focusing on Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC): (a) Perception and Cognition (investigating social and non-social cognition and sensory processing); (b) Neu...
• Professor Michael Bate
  My research is concerned with the way in which the machinery underlying coordinated movement is genetically specified and assembled during embryonic development. On the one hand this involves an analysis of the way in which muscles are assembled, ...
• Dr Sumru Bayin
  An understanding of the diversity of neural progenitors and flexibility in their fate choices - lineage plasticity - is crucial for understanding how complex organs like the brain are generated or undergo repair. The neonatal mouse cerebellum is a...
• Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
  Our research focuses on the development of social cognition, peer influence and decision making in adolescence, and adolescent mental health. We run large scale behavioural studies in schools and in the lab, as well as neuroimaging studies, with a...
• Professor Andrea Brand FRS FMedSci
  Uncovering the molecular mechanisms that control neural stem quiescence and reactivation is crucial for understanding tissue regeneration under normal and pathological conditions and in response to ageing. It is critical to learn not only how stem...
• Professor Sarah Bray
  We are interested in understanding the signalling pathways that co-ordinate the decisions made by cells during development. The ultimate fate of a cell is dictated in part by its heredity and in part through interactions with neighbouring cells. O...
• Dr Clare Buckley
  The vertebrate brain arises from a tube-like structure made from polarised neuroepithelial cells. These have a strict apico-basal orientation; they align their apical ends along a centrally located lumen. This organisation is important for later n...
• Dr Simon Bullock
  Our primary goal is to understand how cellular components are sorted and dispersed by microtubule-based motor complexes, and how these transport processes contribute to the functions of cells in situ (i.e. within organisms). We have long-standing ...
• Dr Isabel Clare
  I work in the Cambridge Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Group in the Dept. of Psychiatry and as a a senior member of the Enduring Disability and/or Disadvantage clinical theme in the NIHR's CLAHRC East of England. My research in...
• Dr Geoffrey Cook
  My research concerns the mechanisms controlling axon growth. In the laboratory we are investigating two axon-repulsive systems, 1) the characterization of somite glycoproteins that repel axons, creating the segmented pattern of spinal nerves durin...
• Dr Greg Davis
  Visual attention, Visual search, Unconscious processing, Security Applications, Autism
• Professor Anthony Dickinson
  My primary research interests concern learning, memory, motivation, and future planning in both humans and animals. My interest in learning and memory is focussed on the distinction between goal-directed and habitual instrumental behaviour as asse...
• Dr Stephen Eglen
  I use computational tools to help investigate mechanisms of neural development. In particular, I study the formation of retinotopic maps and retinal mosaics in vertebrate visual systems. In addition, I am interested in the analysis of large-scale...
• Professor James Fawcett
  Axon regeneration in the damaged CNS: Regeneration of axons after CNS damage is blocked by several molecules in the environment and by loss of intrinsic regeneration ability, We modify the environment to make it more permissive and modify axonal ...
• Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith
  Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism causing genes to be expressed depending on their parental origin. Our research investigates the mechanism and evolution of genomic imprinting and the function of imprinted genes in development and dise...
• Dr Tamsin Ford CBE
  My research focuses on interventions and services to optimize the mental health of children and young people. Both mental health and services are interpreted broadly to include wellbeing as well as distress rather than children exceeding somewhat ...
• Professor Robin Franklin FMedSci, FRS
  Robin Franklin is a Principal Investigator at Altos Las - Cambridge Institute having previously been Professor of Stem Cell Medicine at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. His lab works on the mechanisms of CNS regeneration with ...
• Kristian Franze
  We are taking an interdisciplinary approach to investigate how cellular forces, local cell and tissue stiffness and cellular mechanosensitivity contribute to CNS development and disease. Methods we are exploiting include atomic force microscopy, t...
• Dr Jenny Gibson
  Jenny’s research interests lie in the interplay between linguistic and social development from childhood through to adolescence. She studied at University of Manchester where she gained a BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Therapy, before going on ...
• Professor Dino Giussani
  We have intertwined our interests in oxygen and the development of the central nervous and cardiovascular systems to propose that oxidative stress underlies the common molecular pathway via which prenatal hypoxia contributes to a developmental ori...
• Professor Ian Goodyer FMedSci
  I am a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist based at Cambridge University pursuing research into the connections between human development and psychopathology. My studies are centred on adolescents in the community as well as current patients. Our re...
• Dr Lorna Halliday
  Dr Halliday currently holds a Medical Research Council (MRC) Senior Fellowship in Hearing Research at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Dr Halliday's research focuses on auditory perception in children. She studies how auditory processes...
• Professor Gordon Harold
  My primary research interests focus on (1) examining the interplay between family relationship dynamics and child-adolescent mental health, (2) understanding the interplay between genetic factors, pre-natal, post-natal environmental factors and ch...
• Professor William Harris
  Where does the nervous system come from in the embryo? How does it grow to the right size and shape? How do stem cells turn into more committed neuronal progenitors and how do these cells know when to leave the cycle and differentiate into neural ...
• Professor Melissa Hines
  I study gender development, and am particularly interested in how prenatal influences (e.g., gonadal hormones) interact with postnatal experience to shape brain development and behaviour. My current research programme includes studies of individu...
• Professor Tony Holland
  The focus of our interdisciplinary research is on learning disabilities (intellectual disabilities/mental handicap) from different perspectives. Research to date has had the following main themes. First, the relationship between specific genetical...
• Dr Joni Holmes
  I am interested in the overlap between working memory, attention and executive function processes in children and adults. My research has focussed on the role of working memory in children's mathematical skills, and on understanding the cognitive ...
• Professor Christine Holt FMedSci FRS
  My laboratory studies how nerve connections are first established in the brain. We focus on the developing visual system and our main goal is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of axon guidance that enable axons to navigate from t...
• Dr Ayla Humphrey PhD
  Ayla Humphrey, Lead for Children and Young People’s Psychology, CPFT and Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. Her interest is in the advancement of services for children & families; early identificatio...
• Professor Mark Johnson FBA
  Johnson has published over 360 papers and 10 books on brain and cognitive development in human infants, children and in other species. His laboratory currently focuses on typical, at-risk and atypical functional brain development in human infants ...
• Dr Phil Jones
  We are investigating how normal stem cells transform into cancer cells in a range of sytems, both by studying stem and progenitor cell fate and also by investigating the role of a specific cell fate regulators. Our focus has been on Hes6, which r...
• Dr Napoleon Katsos
  I am interested in how developmental research can inform theoretical linguistic inquiry and vice versa. My particular focus is in the area of semantics and pragmatics, and in language learning by monolingual and bilingual children as well as child...
• Dr David Keays
  The Keays lab exploits cerebral organoids, 2-photon light microscopy, and in vivo genetic methods to investigate important questions in developmental and sensory neurobiology. We are interested in: (1) How mutations in the tubulin and MAST genes c...
• Professor Barry Keverne
  Professor Keverne has long standing experience in behavioural neuroscience and has, in the past 10 years, brought molecular genetic techniques to focus on brain development and investigate how genetic perturbations of the brain influence brain fun...
• Professor Roger Keynes
  Growth cone repulsion is an important mechanism controlling axon growth. During development it guides axons by excluding them from repulsive regions of the embryo. Following injury to the adult brain it may also block axon regeneration, with major...
• Dr Rogier Kievit
  My research focuses on using psychometric models to understand neurodevelopmental changes in executive functions. These cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, problem solving and goal management, develop rapidly during adolescence and often show ...
• Dr Meng-Chuan Lai
  As a clinician scientist, my vision is to bridge and integrate multi-level biological-cognitive-psychological-social research and clinical services. My clinical interests are in the risk and resilience processes across the lifespan in individuals ...
• Dr Madeline Lancaster
  Human brain development exhibits a number of unique characteristics, such as dramatic size expansion, unique cell types, and distinct neural stem cell behaviors. These characteristics are difficult to examine in model organisms such as mice and ar...
• Dr Matthias Landgraf
  We seek to understand how neural networks are specified and how they assemble during development. The locomotor network of the Drosophila embryo and larva serves as a powerful experimental model. Composed of identified neurons whose connections ha...
• Dr Victoria Leong
  I am a developmental cognitive neuroscientist who is interested in the interpersonal neural dynamics of mother-infant interactions. Right now, I am studying the phenomenon of oscillatory coupling or synchronisation between mother and infant brains...
• Dr Florian Merkle
  My laboratory uses pluripotent stem cells to model human diseases that arise from the loss of aberrant function of neurons in the hypothalamus that regulate essential physiological and behavioural processes. In particular, obesity is thought to re...
• Dr Susanna Mierau
  My research focuses on the fundamental rules that govern the development of synaptic and network activity in the cortex and how this process is disrupted in autism and related disorders, with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapies. I com...
• Dr Eric Miska
  We are interested in all aspects of gene regulation by regulatory RNA. Current research themes include: miRNA biology and pathology, miRNA mechanism, piRNA biology and the germline, endo-siRNAs in epigenetic inheritance and evironmental conditioni...
• Dr Anna Moore
  Developing earlry identification tools for child mental health by linking administrative, biomarker, genetic and phenotypic information.
• Dr Sharon Neufeld
  I am a quantitative psychologist interested in understanding the course and interplay of multiple domains of mental health in children and young people. I am currently funded by a 5-year Wellcome Trust award to elucidate mental health treatment ef...
• Dr Cahir O'Kane
  We are interested in the basic biology of axonal ER, and its relevance to neurodegenerative disease, using Drosophila as a model. Axonal ER forms a continuous tubular network throughout the neuron, comparable to a “neuron within a neuron”, potenti...
• Professor Stephen O'Rahilly FRS FMedSci
  My research has been concerned with the elucidation of the basic causes of obesity and Type 2 diabetes at a molecular level and the translation of those discoveries into improved diagnosis and therapy for patients. My work has uncovered several p...
• Dr Amy Orben
  Amy’s research uses large-scale data to examine how digital technologies affect adolescent psychological well-being and mental health. She uses innovative and rigorous statistical methodology to shed new light on pressing questions debated in poli...
• Professor Ole Paulsen
  The primary interest of my group is the relationship between network oscillations and synaptic plasticity. Network oscillations naturally organise spike timing conducive to spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), a strong candidate for a mechani...
• Professor Anna Philpott
  Our laboratory is interested in understanding the coordination of cell proliferation with cell fate determination and differentiation in development, stem cells and reprogramming, focusing particularly on the nervous system (as well as in endocri...
• Dr Jing Ren
  The serotonin system is the most frequently targeted neural system for treating mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. Our team focuses on bridging the huge gap on the link between the abnormalities of serotonergic wiring and transmis...
• Dr John Rogers
  Approaches to gene therapy to promote axon regeneration. Specifically: expression of enzymes which can destroy axon-inhibitory proteoglycans, and the use of viral vectors which can express them in injured neurons.
• Professor Ben Simons
  I am interested in applying methods of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and population dynamics to lineage tracing studies to investigate mechanisms of stem cell fate in development and maintenance. As well as neurogenesis in adult mammalian ...
• Dr Denes Szucs
  Dénes Sz?cs has background in cognitive neuroscience and psychology. He has used electro-encephalography (EEG), electro-myography (EMG), functional near infrared imaging (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioural methods. ...
• Professor Robert Tasker
  1. Multicenter clinical studies: In the USA I am a co-investigator and Executive Committee member for the recently funded NIH ‘Multiple Medical Therapies for Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury – A Comparative Effectiveness Approach’ that will recrui...
• Dr Kyle Treiber
  I am a lecturer in neurocriminology and deputy director of the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a longitudinal study investigating the interaction between people and social environments in the development of crime...
• Marco Tripodi
  One of the major tasks that the nervous system faces is that of linking perception to action. We perceive the world around us through our senses and we use this information to select the most appropriate set of actions. My lab studies the organiza...
• Dr Jelle van den Ameele
  I am a neurologist with an interest in developmental neurobiology and mitochondrial genetics. In the lab, we study how cells and tissues respond to mitochondrial dysfunction, focusing on neural stem cells and the brain. Our goal is to identify nov...
• Professor Anne-Laura van Harmelen
  Anne-Laura van Harmelen is an affiliated researcher at the department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. Van Harmelen is professor of Brain, Safety and Resilience at the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University in the Net...
• Dr Deborah Vickers
  Deborah Vickers is funded by a Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship in Hearing Research. She leads the ‘Sensory Optimisation Using Neuroscience for Devices’ (SOUND) Lab, where research is focussed on understanding sound perception, impact...
• Dr Varun Warrier
  My team works on social and genetic factors that influence neurodevelopment, and mental health. We have a particular interest in investigating heterogeneity in outcomes to develop targeted support and therapy for those who need it. This publicat...
• Dr Joyce Whittington
  Early research on specific learning disabilities - dyslexia - and associated cognitve deficits. For the last 10 years research has focussed on various prevalence, cognitive and behavioural aspects of Prader-Willi syndrome. Most of the latter is d...
• Dr Alex Whitworth
  My lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms of mitochondrial homeostasis in relation to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and motor neuron disease. We use a combination of the powerful genetic techniques of Drosophila...
• Dr Chao Zhao
  My research focuses on mechanism of remyelination of central nervous system following demyelination in various conditions. After demyelinating injury, the system activates a repair process, which involves oligodendrocyte progenitor cells turning i...