Advisory Board and Editors Cell Biology
Takeshi Kurita
I am a Professor of Biology at Toklyo Medical and Dental University. My research interest lies in the molecular and cellular basis of development and reproduction, two fundamental processes for all multicellular organisms. I am particularly interested in the cell and tissue communications that regulate these processes. In embryonic development, interactions between tissues of different cell lineages drive organ formation by activating genetic and epigenetic programs for tissue patterning and cellular differentiation. Tissue interaction also plays a fundamental role in mammalian reproduction as it mediates the actions of sex steroid hormones in reproductive organs. Deregulation of signaling pathways that control tissue communications could lead to conditions such as cancer. Thus, I also investigate the molecular pathogenesis of disorders in reproductive and hormone-target organs. Since mammalian development and reproductive functions are controlled by complex crosstalk among multiple tissues, organs, and systems, we primarily use in vivo mouse models for the investigation.
Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the fundamental process of life is a goal of our research. In addition, our research also aims to improve human health through translational research based on the knowledge obtained through basic research.
Julia Kzhyshkowska
1997: PhD Cancer Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow.
1997-2001: Postdoc at the University of Regensburg
2001-2007: Junior group leader/PI and lecturer, University of Heidelberg.
2007- 2010:Senior group leader/PI and senior lecturer, University of Heidelberg
2010-2013: Professor, head of the Lab for Cellular and Molecular Biology of Innate Immunity;
2013-permanent: Professor, head of Department for Innate Immunity and Tolerance, University of Heidelberg.
Sharon La Fontaine
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science and Group Leader, Deakin University; Honorary Senior Research Fellow, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.
Sharon's research has been funded by the NHMRC and ARC and is focused on the biology of the copper and its role in health and disease. Sharon has held research positions at The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and at UCLA, USA, was a recipient of a prestigious NHMRC R.D. Wright Award and has published widely in internationally recognised journals. Sharon is a strong advocate for student professional development and career mentoring within the biomedical sciences and medical research through her University teaching and her work on the Victorian Branch of The Australian Society for Medical Research.
Elizabeth G. Laird
My research goals are to characterise the mechanisms of collagenous tissue development, repair and renewal. Current research interests include understanding the dynamics of collagen synthesis and turnover, the role of stem cells in musculoskeletal homeostasis and the role of glucose in musculoskeletal ageing. Tissues of interest are primarily tendon and ligament but include cartilage, bone, cornea and intervertebral disc, as well as fibrotic tissue.
This research is important because age-related degeneration and loss of function in musculoskeletal tissues is associated with chronic joint pain, limited movement, tendinopathy, ligament damage, intervertebral disc degeneration and osteoarthritis. There is both a loss of tissue integrity and propensity to fibrosis indicating that homeostasis of the collagenous extracellular matrix is lost with age. Understanding the molecular processes that create functional musculoskeletal tissues during development and growth, and which malfunction or cease to operate in aged tissues is key to developing new strategies for tissue engineering, to activate intrinsic stem cell repair mechanisms and to develop beneficial pharmaceutical, dietary or exercise-based interventions in an increasingly aged society.
Matteo Lambrughi
I'm currently a PostDoctoral researcher at the Computational Biology Laboratory at the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenaghen, Denmark.
Corinne I. Lasmezas
Corinne Lasmézas, DVM, Ph.D. serves as a Professor at The Scripps Research Institute. Since Dr. Lasmézas' appointment at Scripps in 2005, she has focused on how misfolded proteins lead to neuronal dysfunction and loss in diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and prion diseases. Additionally, Dr. Lasmézas is a reviewer for national and private funding agencies worldwide, including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the UK Medical Research Council and an Advisor for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Earlier in her career, Dr. Lasmézas’ research provided the first experimental evidence that the prion disease “mad cow disease” had been transmitted to humans, causing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. At the peak of the mad cow crisis, Dr. Lasmézas became an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as several governmental and public health committees. She is multiple TED speaker and is an internationally recognized expert in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. She has published more than 60 original scientific papers. She has been a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Anavex Life Sciences Corp. since March 2015. Dr. Lasmézas holds a PhD in Neurosciences from the University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris and obtained her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and Diploma of Aeronautic and Space Medicine from the University of Toulouse, France.
Patrizia Lavia
Research Director at Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM), CNR, Rome (Italy). Main research interests:
- control of the cell cycle, mitosis, and the mitotic apparatus in human cells
- origins of genetic instability and cancer
- roles of nuclear transport receptors in nuclear organization and cell division
- signalling by GTPases and kinases
- innovative drug design, drugs targeting the cell cycle
-cellular imaging
Sunhee Lee
Dr. Sunhee Lee received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Christina Kennedy. Her graduate studies and research were focused on the area of plant-microbe interactions. After completing her graduate studies, Dr. Lee trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. William Jacobs's laboratory at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In Dr. Jacob's laboratory, she researched the pathogenicity and immune responses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and generated and tested live TB vaccine candidates that had been genetically engineered. Dr. Lee moved to Duke University as an Assistant Professor at the Human Vaccine Institute and Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. As an investigator at Duke University, she continued to expand the research field to other host-mycobacterial interactions and their impact on immunogenicity and pathogenicity. Additionally, Dr. Lee's laboratory developed recombinant mycobacteria capable of eliciting strong HIV/SIV-specific immune responses. Currently, Dr. Lee is an Associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she has been working to discover and develop new therapeutics and vaccines against M. tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria.
Bill P Leggat
I was awarded my PhD from James Cook University in 2001 where my research project focussed on photosynthesis and bleaching in the symbiotic giant clam Tridacna gigas. I then moved to the University of Queensland where I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Marine Studies in the laboratory of Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. In 2007 I returned to James Cook Univeristy as a Lecturer in the discpline of Biochemistry, I am now a Associate Professor and head of the Symbiosis Genomics Research Group and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. The overarching aim of my research is to link transcriptomic and metabolomic changes to whole organism responses and acclimation. My research utilises genomic and metabolomic techniques to determine how the coral holobiont responds to anthropogenic changes, including increasing temperatures, ocean acidification and eutrophication.
Liudmila P Leppik
Assistant Director, Frankfurt Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, J.W. Goethe-Universität, Friedrichsheim Orthopedic University Hospital.
Dr. Leppik’s research background is in the fields of molecular biology and virology in Russia and Germany. Specifically her research focused on human genome activity and regulation of gene expression during tumor genesis and development and differentiation. Her current research at FIRM focuses on tissue development and regeneration.
Tim P Levine
Tim Levine trained first as a medic then moved into membrane cell biology, and then into intracellular lipid traffic. He showed that inter-organellar contacts are important sites for non-vesicular traffic inside cells. This was part of a revolution in our understanding of intracellular organelles. For over 40 years previously membrane contact sites had been largely ignored or dismissed as artefacts. Tim initially found a lipid transfer protein that localised to a contact site, and showed that it bound to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein VAP via a motif he named the FFAT motif. FFAT motifs are present in several other lipid transfer proteins leading Tim to propose that FFAT-motif proteins would act at contact sites by binding simultaneously to both the ER and another membrane. By improving the definition of FFAT-like motifs, Tim showed they are present in numerous other proteins, facilitating molecular research of many contact site components. Tim organised the first two conferences on contact sites in 2005 and 2011, linking advances in lipid traffic to those in calcium traffic to bring together these overlapping sub-disciplines.
Tim has also used remote homology tools to identify a new family of lipid transfer proteins anchored at contact sites, and highlighted the power of these tools through specific examples and a ‘How-To’ guide.
Raphaël Lévy
PhD, physics, Strasbourg, France, 2002, polymer adsorption with the Atomic Force Microscope
Post-doctoral fellowship, Liverpool, UK, Design of peptides as capping agents for gold nanoparticles
BBSRC David Phillips Fellow, Liverpool, 2006-11, Nanoparticle-based imaging in living cells; biomimetic nanoparticles
2011- Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool
Our research focuses on nanoparticles, their structure, and applications, in particular for biological imaging both at the single molecule level and for cell tracking in animal models.