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Department of Zoology

 
Fly ovary with posterior cuticle, Actin (magenta), P podies (cyan), Dapi (blue)

Cell and developmental biologists aim to understand how cells function, how their activities contribute to animal physiology and behaviour, and how they cooperate during development to create tissues and organs. Our research spans topics from DNA replication through to the evolution of developmental systems. In order to integrate cellular mechanisms with the biology of whole animals, we employ well characterised and highly-tractable model systems, like C. elegans and Drosophila, as well as various emerging marine model organisms.

Our research groups

Second Messenger Biology

Howard Baylis - How animals use the second messengers IP3 and calcium to control their development, behaviour and physiology. We employ C. elegans models of human disease.

Amphioxus Comparative Biology

Èlia Benito-Gutiérrez - We use this marine invertebrate chordate to understand the evolution and development of vertebrate complex traits at a multi-scale level.

DNA Replication in Human Cells

Torsten Krude - Our group investigates genome-wide locations and efficiencies of initiation sites for human DNA replication, and their activation by noncoding small Y RNAs.

Neural Network Development

Matthias Landgraf - We study nervous system development, focused on mechanisms (plasticity & critical periods) that enable nervous systems to become and remain functional.

Planar Cell Polarity

Peter Lawrence - Our group investigates how global and local signals integrate to polarise in a coordinate manner the cells of an animal tissue.

Biomolecular Condensates

Tim Weil - We explore the cellular mechanisms underpinning the oocyte-to-embryo transition, with specific interest in the function of biomolecular condensates, mRNA regulation, and egg activation.