Sally Lowell
Address
- Street
-
Centre for Regenerative Medicine
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh BioQuarter
5 Little France Drive - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH16 4UU
Background
- PhD with Fiona Watt at CRUK
- Postdoc with David Anderson at Caltech
- Postdoc with Austin Smith at the University of Edinburgh
- Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the University of Edinburgh
- Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at the University of Edinburgh
Current PhD students supervised
Jennifer Annoh
Tamina Lebek
Eleanor Earp
Aisling Fairweather
Past PhD students supervised
Mattias Malaguti
Rosa Portero Migueles
Paul Nistor
Amy Pegg
Karolina Punovuori
Chandrika Rao
Darren Wisniewski
Matthew French
Research summary
Pluripotent stem cell differentiation
The aim of my research is to understand the lineage decisions of pluripotent cells. I am interested in how local communication between individual cells influences these decisions. We are also trying to understand how changes in adhesion and tissue morphology modulate differentiation during early development.
Aims and areas of interest
We aim to understand how cells steer a path from pluripotency towards lineage commitment, and in particular to understand why differentiation response can be variable between individual cells.We have identified transcription factors that control the first steps towards differentiation, and which can be exploited as markers of early primed or committed states. We are also investigating how events outside the nucleus, particularly cell adhesion and tissue morphology, may influence the way that pluripotent cells receive and interpret differentiation cues. Our lab are developing quantitative imaging tools for monitoring changes in tissue morphology and cellular organisation in order to ask how these relate to differentiation competence. We are also developing new methods for studying how cells influence their neighbours. By uncovering the interplay between transcription, signalling, and morphogenesis, our ultimate aim is to discover the hidden rules behind the apparent unpredictability of the differentiation response.