Professor Andrea Brand FRS FMedSci
University position
Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology
Professor Andrea Brand FRS FMedSci is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.
Departments
Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience
Institutes
Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology
Home page
http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/brand.html (personal home page)
Research Themes
Interests
Discovering how stem cells are maintained in a multipotent state and how their progeny differentiate into distinct cellular fates is a key step in the therapeutic use of stem cells to repair tissues after damage or disease. We are investigating the genetic networks that regulate stem cells in the Drosophila central nervous system. We use classical and reverse genetics, high resolution imaging and genome-wide transcriptional profiling to identify the molecular switches controlling the transition from symmetric to asymmetric division and from self-renewal to differentiation. We are characterising the genetic networks that control the transition from a neural stem cell to a specialised neuronal or glial cell type. By identifying neural stem cell-specific genes, and genes specific for differentiating daughters, we can begin to assess the potential for inducing neurons to divide in a regenerative manner, or for directing stem cells to differentiate into specific neuronal subtypes.
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Research Focus
Keywordsstem cells asymmetric cell division self-renewal differentiation neural circuit |
Clinical conditionsCancers |
Equipment
Confocal microscopy
DNA microarrays
Fluorescence microscopy
Immunohistochemistry
Live imaging
Microscopy
Protein purification
Recombinant protein expression
Single cell analysis
Targeted gene expression
Collaborators
CambridgeHelen Skaer | United KingdomRichard Baines Web: http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/researc... InternationalYohanns Bellaiche Web: http://www.curie.fr/recherc... Chris Doe Web: http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/ionmain... Leanne Jones Web: http://www.salk.edu/faculty... Francois Schweisguth Web: http://www.biologie.ens.fr/desnpcs... |
Key publications
Chell JM, Brand AH (2010), “Nutrition-responsive glia control exit of neural stem cells from quiescence.” Cell 143(7):1161-73 Details
Egger B, Gold KS, Brand AH (2010), “Notch regulates the switch from symmetric to asymmetric neural stem cell division in the Drosophila optic lobe.” Development 137(18):2981-7 Details
Southall TD, Brand AH (2009), “Neural stem cell transcriptional networks highlight genes essential for nervous system development.” EMBO J 28(24):3799-807 Details
Egger B, Boone JQ, Stevens NR, Brand AH, Doe CQ (2007), “Regulation of spindle orientation and neural stem cell fate in the Drosophila optic lobe” Neural Development 2:1 Details
Choksi SP, Southall T, Bossing T, Edoff K, de Wit E, van Steensel B, Micklem G, Brand AH (2006), “Prospero acts as a binary switch between self-renewal and differentiation in Drosophila neural stem cells” Developmental Cell 11:775-789 Details
van Roessel PJ, Elliott DA, Robinson IM, Prokop A, Brand AH (2004), “Independent regulation of synaptic size and activity by the anaphase-promoting complex” Cell 119:707-718
Publications
2011
Brand AH, Livesey FJ (2011), “Neural stem cell biology in vertebrates and invertebrates: more alike than different?” Neuron 70(4):719-29 Details
Egger B, Gold KS, Brand AH (2011), “Regulating the balance between symmetric and asymmetric stem cell division in the developing brain.” Fly (Austin) 5(3):237-41 Details
2010
Bardin AJ, Perdigoto CN, Southall TD, Brand AH, Schweisguth F (2010), “Transcriptional control of stem cell maintenance in the Drosophila intestine.” Development 137(5):705-14 Details
Monier B, Pélissier-Monier A, Brand AH, Sanson B (2010), “An actomyosin-based barrier inhibits cell mixing at compartmental boundaries in Drosophila embryos.” Nat Cell Biol 12(1):60-5; sup pp 1-9 Details
2009
Ruiz i Altaba A, Brand AH (2009), “Entity versus property: tracking the nature, genesis and role of stem cells in cancer. Conference on Stem cells and cancer.” EMBO Rep 10(8):832-6 Details
von Trotha JW, Egger B, Brand AH (2009), “Cell proliferation in the Drosophila adult brain revealed by clonal analysis and bromodeoxyuridine labelling.” Neural Dev 4:9 Details
2008
Chell JM, Brand AH (2008), “Forever young: death-defying neuroblasts.” Cell 133(5):769-71 Details
Egger B, Chell JM, Brand AH (2008), “Insights into neural stem cell biology from flies.” Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 363(1489):39-56 Details
Elliott DA, Brand AH (2008), “The GAL4 system : a versatile system for the expression of genes.” Methods Mol Biol 420:79-95 Details
Southall TD, Egger B, Gold KS, Brand AH (2008), “Regulation of self-renewal and differentiation in the Drosophila nervous system.” Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 73:523-8 Details
Wu PS, Egger B, Brand AH (2008), “Asymmetric stem cell division: lessons from Drosophila.” Semin Cell Dev Biol 19(3):283-93 Details
2007
Edoff K, Dods JS, Brand AH (2007), “Detection of GFP during nervous system development in Drosophila melanogaster.” Methods Mol Biol 411:81-98 Details
Southall TD, Brand AH (2007), “Chromatin profiling in model organisms.” Brief Funct Genomic Proteomic 6(2):133-40 Details
2006
Barbee SA, Estes PS, Cziko AM, Hillebrand J, Luedeman RA, Coller JM, Johnson N, Howlett IC, Geng C, Ueda R, Brand AH, Newbury SF, Wilhelm JE, Levine RB, Nakamura A, Parker R, Ramaswami M (2006), “Staufen- and FMRP-containing neuronal RNPs are structurally and functionally related to somatic P bodies.” Neuron 52(6):997-1009 Details
Pym EC, Southall TD, Mee CJ, Brand AH, Baines RA (2006), “The homeobox transcription factor Even-skipped regulates acquisition of electrical properties in Drosophila neurons.” Neural Dev 1:3 Details
Research and Collaboration
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