The London Research Institute research groups are based at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Clare Hall. Our major research themes are: the biology of tumours and tissues, cellular regulatory mechanisms and genomic integrity and cell cycle.
Barry Thompson : Epithelial Biology
Goals
The Epithelial Biology Lab uses Drosophila as a model organism to explore how cells co-operate to construct epithelial tissues during development and how epithelial tumours can arise. We focus on the question of how cell polarity organises the behaviour of cells within an epithelium.
We take three main approaches:
1. Genome-wide in vivo RNAi screening;
2. Live-imaging of epithelial tissue development;
3. Computational modelling of cell polarity and cell behaviour.
We aim to combine these approaches to identify molecular mechanisms responsible for organising cell polarity and cell behaviour during tissue growth and morphogenesis in epithelia. Our recent work has examined two different types of cell polarity in epithelia, apico-basal polarity and planar polarity.
Selected Papers
Mao Y, Tournier AL, Bates PA, Gale JE, Tapon N, Thompson BJ. Planar polarization of the atypical myosin Dachs orients cell divisions in Drosophila. Genes Dev. 2011;25(2):131-6
(Abstract)
Genevet A, Wehr MC, Brain R, Thompson BJ, Tapon N. Kibra is a regulator of the Salvador/Warts/Hippo signaling network. Dev Cell. 2010;18(2):300-8
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ and Cohen SM. The Hippo pathway regulates the bantam microRNA to control cell proliferation and apoptosis in Drosophila. Cell. 2006;126(4):767-74.
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ, Mathieu J, Sung HH, Loeser E, Rorth P, Cohen SM. Tumor suppressor properties of the ESCRT component Vps25 in Drosophila. Developmental Cell. 2005;9(5):711-20
(Abstract)
Thompson B, Townsley F, Rosin-Arbesfeld R, Musisi H, Bienz M. A new nuclear component of the Wnt signalling pathway. Nature Cell Biology. 2002;4(5):367-73
(Abstract)
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Barry Thompson
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