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
Sidor CM, Brain R, Thompson BJ. Mask proteins are cofactors of Yorkie/YAP in the Hippo pathway. Current Biology. 2013;23(3):223-8
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ, Pichaud F, Roeper K. Sticking together the Crumbs - an unexpected function for an old friend. Nature Reviews in Molecular Cell Biology. 2013; 14(5):307-14
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ. Cell polarity: models and mechanisms from yeast, worms and flies. Development. 2013;140(1):13-21
(Abstract)
Fletcher GC, Lucas EP, Brain R, Tournier A, Thompson BJ. Positive feedback and mutual antagonism combine to polarize crumbs in the Drosophila follicle cell epithelium. Current Biology 2012;22(12):1116-22
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ. Cell polarity: models and mechanisms from yeast, worms and flies. Development. 140, 13-21 (2013) doi:10.1242/dev.083634
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ. The delicate choreography in growing epithelia. Journal of Cell Biology. 2012;198(3):268-9
(Abstract)
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 & Development. 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. Developmental Cell. 2010;18(2):300-8
(Abstract)
Thompson BJ. Developmental control of cell growth and division in Drosophila. Current Opinion in Cell Biology. 2010;22(6):788-94
(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 BJ. A Complex of Armadillo, Legless, and Pygopus Coactivates dTCF to Activate Wingless Target Genes. Current Biology. 2004;14:1-20
(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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