Animal Cells and Systems

Group Coordinator: Dr Patricia Muller

We are a grouping of animal biologists working on fundamental biological questions, most of which underpin biomedical interests relevant to the bioeconomy.

Our research is divided into three thematic areas:

Mechanisms of development and ageing - including stem cell biology and age-related disease

Cell to system organization and function – focusing on the cytoskeleton, membrane biology and signalling from subcellular to whole animal systems

Cell and tissue biotechnology – incorporating tissue engineering, development and application of in vitro models, and biomarkers of health and disease

Our strengths are in basic bioscience and biotechnology. We develop and use state-of-the-art technologies including advanced bioimaging, omics-based approaches and computational strategies.

We have strong interdisciplinary links with other science and medical disciplines within and beyond our faculty, including major industries, HE Institutes and NHS Trusts. This enables us to realise the value and impact of our fundamental research in underpinning advances for the health and wellbeing of our society.

Affiliated Members: Dr Martin Schröder, Prof Sushma Grellscheid, Prof Paul Denny

Recent Publications

De Los Santos Gomez, Paola; Costello, Lydia; Goncalves, Kirsty; Przyborski, Stefan. Comparison of photodamage in non-pigmented and pigmented human skin equivalents exposed to repeated ultraviolet radiation to investigate the role of melanocytes in skin photoprotection (2024). Frontiers in Medicine.

Al-Ansari, Mohammad; Fitzsimons, Taylor; Wei, Wenbin; Goldberg, Martin W; Kunieda, Takekazu; Quinlan, Roy A. The major inducible small heat shock protein HSP20-3 in the tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus forms filament-like structures and is an active chaperone. (2024). Cell Stress and Chaperones

Buffry, Alexandra D.; Currea, John P.; Franke-Gerth, Franziska A.; Palavalli-Nettimi, Ravindra; Bodey, Andrew J.; Rau, Christoph; Samadi, Nazanin; Gstöhl, Stefan J.; Schlepütz, Christian M.; McGregor, Alistair P.; Sumner-Rooney, Lauren; Theobald, Jamie; Kittelmann, Maike. Evolution of compound eye morphology underlies differences in vision between closely related Drosophila species (2024). BMC Biology

Connors, Caroline Q; Mauro, Michael S; Wiles, J Tristian; Countryman, Andrew D; Martin, Sophia L; Lacroix, Benjamin; Shirasu-Hiza, Mimi; Dumont, Julien; Kasza, Karen E; Davies, Timothy R; Canman, Julie C. Germ fate determinants protect germ precursor cell division by reducing septin and anillin levels at the cell division plane. (2024) Molecular Biology of the Cell

Penlington, Chris; Pornsukjantra, Pattramon; Chazot, Paul; Cole, Frances; Denneny, Diarmuid. Confidence of practitioners to support self-management of pain: A multidisciplinary survey (2024). British Journal of Pain

Ridgway, Amber M.; Hood, Emily J.; Jimenez, Javier Figueras; Nunes, Maria D.S.; McGregor, Alistair P. Sox21b underlies the rapid diversification of a novel male genital structure between Drosophila species (2024) Current Biology

Hughes, Joshua G; Chisholm, David R; Whiting, Andrew; Girkin, John M; Ambler, Carrie A. (2023) Bullseye Analysis: A Fluorescence Microscopy Technique to Detect Local Changes in Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Production Microscopy and Microanalysis.

Digal Ladagu, Amany; Eniola Olopade, Funmilayo; Chazot, Paul; Oyagbemi, Ademola A.; Ohiomokhare, Samuel; Racheal Folarin, Oluwabusayo; Tashara Gilbert, Taidinda; Fuller, Madison; Luong, Toan; Adejare, Adeboye; Olopade, James O. Attenuation of Vanadium-Induced Neurotoxicity in Rat Hippocampal Slices (In Vitro) and Mice (In Vivo) by ZA-II-05, a Novel NMDA-Receptor Antagonist (2023) International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Jovanoski, Kristijan D.; Duquenoy, Lucille; Mitchell, Jessica; Kapoor, Ishaan; Treiber, Christoph D.; Croset, Vincent; Dempsey, Georgia; Parepalli, Sai; Cognigni, Paola; Otto, Nils; Felsenberg, Johannes; Waddell, Scott. Dopaminergic systems create reward seeking despite adverse consequences (2023) Nature

Allcock, Benjamin; Wei, Wenbin; Goncalves, Kirsty; Hoyle, Henry; Robert, Alisha; Quelch-Cliffe, Rebecca; Hayward, Adam; Cooper, Jim; Przyborski, Stefan. Impact of the Physical Cellular Microenvironment on the Structure and Function of a Model Hepatocyte Cell Line for Drug Toxicity Applications (2023) Cells

Fölsz, Orsolya; Trouche, Stéphanie; Croset, Vincent. Adult-born neurons add flexibility to hippocampal memories (2023) Frontiers in Neuroscience

Lobsang, Dolma; Muller, Patricia A.J. GOF Mutant p53 in Cancers: A Therapeutic Challenge (2022) Cancers

Fang, Bin; Card, Patrick D.; Chen, Junjun; Li, Lijuan; Laughlin, Timothy; Jarrold, Bradley; Zhao, Wenzhu; Benham, Adam M.; Määttä, Arto T.; Hawkins, Timothy J.; Hakozaki, Tomohiro. A Potential Role of Keratinocyte-Derived Bilirubin in Human Skin Yellowness and Its Amelioration by Sucrose Laurate/Dilaurate (2022) International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Li, Zhi, Lamb, Rebecca, Coles, Mark C., Bennett, Clare L. & Ambler, Carrie A. (2021). Inducible ablation of CD11c+ cells to determine their role in skin wound repair. Immunology 163(1): 105-111.

Maruyama, Yohei, Sugawa, Mitsuhiro, Yamaguchi, Shin, Davies, Tim, Osaki, Toshihisa, Kobayashi, Takuya, Yamagishi, Masahiko, Takeuchi, Shoji, Mishima, Masanori & Yajima, Junichiro (2021). CYK4 relaxes the bias in the off-axis motion by MKLP1 kinesin-6. Communications Biology 4: 180.

Wheelwright, M., Whittle, C.R. & Riabinina, O. (2021). Olfactory systems across mosquito species. Cell and Tissue Research

Obara, Ilona, Telezhkin, Vsevolod, Alrashdi, Ibrahim & Chazot, Paul L. (2020). Histamine, histamine receptors and neuropathic pain relief. British Journal of Pharmacology 177(3): 580-599.

Allen, A.M., Neville, M.C., Birtles, S., Croset, V., Treiber, C.D., Waddell, S. & Goodwin, S.F. (2020). A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the adult Drosophila ventral nerve cord. eLife 9: e54074.

Chisholm, David, Lamb, Rebecca, Pallett, Tommy, Affleck, Valerie, Holden, Claire, Marrison, Joanne, O'Toole, Peter, Ashton, Peter, Newling, Katherine, Steffen, Andreas, Nelson, Amanda, Mahler, Christoph, Valentine, Roy, Blacker, Thomas, Bain, Angus John, Girkin, John M, Marder, Todd B, Whiting, Andrew & Ambler, Carrie A (2019). Photoactivated cell-killing involving a low molecular weight, donor-acceptor diphenylacetylene. Chemical Science 10(17): 4673-4683.

Worfolk, JC, Bell, S, Simpson, LD, Carne, NA, Francis, SL, Engelbertsen, V, Brown, AP, Walker, J, Viswanath, YK & Benham, AM (2019). Elucidation of the AGR2 interactome in esophageal adenocarcinoma cells identifies a redox sensitive chaperone hub for the quality control of MUC-5AC. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 31(15): 1117-1132.

Schinaman, Joseph M., Rana, Anil, Ja, William W., Clark, Rebecca I. & Walker, David W. (2019). Rapamycin modulates tissue aging and lifespan independently of the gut microbiota in Drosophila. Scientific Reports 9(1): 7824.

Hirsch, Sophia M., Sundaramoorthy, Sriramkumar, Davies, Tim, Zhuravlev, Yelena, Waters, Jennifer C., Shirasu-Hiza, Mimi, Dumont, Julien & Canman, Julie C. (2018). FLIRT: fast local infrared thermogenetics for subcellular control of protein function. Nature Methods 15(11): 921-923.

Doupé, D.P., Marshall, O.J, Dayton, H., Brand, A.H. & Perrimon, N. (2018). Drosophila intestinal stem and progenitor cells are major sources and regulators of homeostatic niche signals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(48): 12218-12223.

Abaci, Hasan Erbil, Coffman, Abigail, Doucet, Yanne, Chen, James, Jacków, Joanna, Wang, Etienne, Guo, Zongyou, Shin, Jung U., Jahoda, Colin A. & Christiano, Angela M. (2018). Tissue engineering of human hair follicles using a biomimetic developmental approach. Nature Communications 9(1): 5301.

Resnik-Docampo, Martin, Koehler, Christopher L., Clark, Rebecca I., Schinaman, Joseph M., Sauer, Vivien, Wong, Daniel M., Lewis, Sophia, D’Alterio, Cecilia, Walker, David W. & Jones, D. Leanne (2017). Tricellular junctions regulate intestinal stem cell behaviour to maintain homeostasis. Nature Cell Biology 19(1): 52-59.

Ciechomska, M., O'Reilly, S., Przyborski, S., Oakley, F., Bogunia-Kubik, K. & van Laar, J.M. (2016). Histone demethylation and toll‐like receptor 8–dependent cross‐talk in monocytes promotes transdifferentiation of fibroblasts in systemic sclerosis via Fra‐2. Arthritis & Rheumatology 68(6): 1493-1504.

Virk, B., Jia, J., Maynard, C.A., Raimundo, A., Lefebvre, J., Richards, S.A., Chetina, N., Liang, Y., Helliwell, N., Cipinska, M. & Weinkove, D. (2016). Folate acts in E. coli to accelerate C. elegans aging independently of bacterial biosynthesis. Cell Reports 14(7): 1611-1620.

Health Beyond Biomedicine

Read Durham University's Biomedicine policy document, two of the six projects are lead by ACaS group member Dr Paul Chazot. The main brief can be read here. Beyond Biomedicine and a short video can be found here.