Principal Investigators
European Institute of Oncology
Department of Experimental Oncology
bruno.amati@ifom-ieo-campus.it
+39 0257 489824
Dr Amati has a long-standing interest in a transcription factor called Myc, which is also an important oncogene in human cancer. His group is particularly interested in the role of chromatin-modifying enzymes, such as histone acetyl- and methyl-transferases, in those biological responses.
EPFL
Laboratory of Stem Cell Dynamic
yann.barrandon@epfl.ch
+41 21 6931633
Yann Barrandon, M. D., Ph. D, is a joint professor of Stem Cell Research and of Experimental Surgery at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV).
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN
Biotechnologisches Zentrum
andreas.beyer@biotec.tu-dresden.de
+49 351 463 40080
Andreas Beyer graduated with a PhD in systems science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He did post-doctoral work with Thomas Wilhelm in Jena, Germany and with Trey Ideker (UCSD). Since 2007 he is heading the research group 'Cellular Networks & Systems Biology' at the Biotechnology Center in Dresden, Germany focusing on computational systems biology and statistical genetics.
University of Edinburgh
Institute for Stem Cell Research
c.blackburn@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)1316 505843
Dr Blackburn’s research focuses on development of the thymus. The thymus plays a central role in the development of the body’s immune system as it is the main site in which T cells are generated. Dr Blackburn’s lab recently identified a population of progenitor/stem cells in mice that, on transplantation, is sufficient to generate a fully functional thymus.
Pasteur Institute
Department of Developmental Biology
margab@pasteur.fr
+33 1 4568 8477
Professor Buckingham's laboratory studies the formation of skeletal muscle. Their work focusses on the genes that regulate the entry of cells into the myogenic programme. Manipulation of these genes in the mouse gives new insight into their role in the specification, proliferation and survival of skeletal muscle stem cells. The introduction of genetic markers makes it possible to isolate such cells from different sources and to examine their therapeutic potential.
University of Milan
Department of Pharmacological Sciences and Center of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases
elena.cattaneo@unimi.it
+39 02-50325840
Professor Cattaneo's laboratory works on Huntington's Disease, a brain neurodegenerative disease caused by the mutation in a single gene. Her lab is using stem cells to study the function of the disease-causing gene and to generate human neurons suitable for transplantation and pharmacological screening. Research activities are also concentrated on the identification of disease mechanisms in vertebrates with the ultimate goal to identify molecular targets and cells with therapeutical potential.
University of Edinburgh
Institute for Stem Cell Research
ichambers@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 6517242
Dr Ian Chambers’ line of research studies the molecules that direct self-renewal of undifferentiated ES cells. We are particularly interested in the role of the transcription factor Nanog, which we isolated through a functional screen for molecules capable of directing ES cell self-renewal in the absence of the otherwise obligatory LIF signal.
Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology
Hubrecht Institute
clevers@niob.knaw.nl
+31 30 212 1831
Prof Hans Clevers’ research group studies TCF factors, mediators of Wnt signaling in development and cancer. His group has shown in frogs (4), flies (7) and worms (11) that upon Wingless/Wnt signaling, ß-catenin associates with nuclear TCFs and contributes a trans-activation domain to the resulting bipartite transcription factor. In the absence of Wnt signaling, we found that Tcf factors associate with proteins of the Groucho family of transcriptional repressors to repress target gene transcription.
San Raffaele, Milan
Developmental Neurogenetics Unit
g.consalez@hsr.it
+39 (0)226 434838
Dr Consalez is Head of the Developmental Neurogenetics Unit at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan. His research focuses on the regulation of developmental neurogenesis, particularly in the embryonic cerebellum. During embryonic development, neurogenesis proceeds maintaining a fine balance between mechanisms that support self renewal of undifferentiated radial progenitors and others that instruct precursors to commit to specific fates and achieve terminal differentiation. Numerous spontaneous and induced mutations that affect cerebellar neurogenesis are providing precious information on the molecular mechanisms that regulate mammalian neural development at large. Our group is contributing to this knowledge by using transgenic mice to perform loss-of-function, gain-of-function and lineage analysis studies. In this project, we are analyzing the developmental potential of adherently expandable neural stem cells, and assessing their ability to recapitulate in vitro the regulatory cascades that govern cerebellar neurogenesis in vivo.
University of Oxford
Oxford Stem Cell Institute
t.enver@ucl.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 222141
Professor Enver is currently Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the University of Oxford and Director of Stem Cell Research at the Medical Research Council’s Molecular Haematology Unit in the Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine on the John Radcliffe Hospital Site. His research career has been principally concerned with understanding the mechanisms by which tissue and developmental stage specific gene expression is achieved and regulated with early work focusing on the regulation of the b-globin gene clusters. His current work deploys post-genomic technologies and mathematical modeling approaches to gain further insight into how blood stem cells are configured in molecular terms, the nature of the pathways involved in their cell fate decisions, and how these are corrupted by chimaeric transcription factors associated with human leukaemia.
University of Groningen
Department of Stem Cell Biology, University Medical Centre
g.de.haan@med.umcg.nl
+31 (0)50 363 2722
Gerald de Haan did his PHD at the University of Cologne, Germany and the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, under supervision of Prof. dr. Markus Loeffler and Dr William Nijhof, on vivo models addressing the issue of erythroid and myeloid lineage competition. As a post doctoral fellow he shifted his interest to the use of genetic mouse modules to map quantitative trait loci involved in various hematopietic stem cell traits. In addition he develop a strong interest in the ageing of hematopietic stem cells.
Lund University / John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Lund Strategic Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Cell Therapy / The Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
sten.jacobsen@wimm.ox.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 222425
Professor Sten Eirik Jacobsen is head of the research program which is focused on identifying molecular mechanisms governing stem cell fate decisions, and lineage development within the hematopoietic system.
IGBMC
Centre Européen de Recherche en Biologie et Médecine
sophie@igbmc.fr
+ 33 3 88 65 33 92
Sophie Jarriault is interested in the mechanisms that control cellular potential in vivo. She did her PhD on the transduction of the Notch signal in mammals in Alain Israël laboratory at the Pasteur Institute, Paris; she realised her postdoc with Iva Greenwald, at Columbia University NYC, on vulva organogenesis in C. elegans.
photograph (c) Lola Velasquez
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Division of Molecular genetics
j.jonkers@nki.nl
+31 20 512 2000
Dr. Jos Jonkers’ research group studies the genetic basis of human breast cancer, using advanced mouse models for p53-induced breast cancer, BRCA1- and BRCA2- associated hereditary breast cancer, and E-cadherin mutated invasive lobular carcinoma. These models are used for both basic and translational research, including studies to investigate the role of tumor initiating cells in tumor relapse, tumor metastasis and therapy resistance.
University of Edinburgh
Institute for Stem Cell Research
keisuke.kaji@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0) 131 650 5868
Keisuke Kaji obtained a PhD degree in Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, and joined Dr Brian Hendrich’s lab in Institute for Stem Cell Research (ISCR), University of Edinburgh, UK, in 2003. In this group, he discovered that Mbd3, a component of the NuRD co-repressor complex, is required for ES cell pluripotency (Kaji, et al., Nature Cell Biol, 2006) and important for the development of pluripotent cells in peri-implantation embryos (Kaji, et al., Development, 2007). In January 2008, he started his own group in ISCR and succeeded in making a non-viral single vector reprogramming system, which has been applied to both mouse and human cells using the piggyBac transposon in collaboration with Prof. Andras Nagy in Toronto (Kaji, et al., Nature, 2009, Woltjen, et al., Nature, 2009). His group currently focuses on the molecular mechanisms of reprogramming using the piggyBac reprogramming system.
photograph (c) Peter Tuffey, The University of Edinburgh.
Institute of Molecular Biotechnology
Asymmetric cell division and proliferation control in Drosophila
juergen.knoblich@imba.oeaw.ac.at
+43 1790 44 4800
Jürgen Knoblich is a senior scientist at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna. After graduating in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen, he pursued his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Christian Lehner at the Max Planck Institute, where he studied the role of cyclin proteins in cell-cycle progression in Drosophila. For his postdoc, he joined the laboratory of Lily and Yuh Nung Jan at University of California San Francisco to analyse the mechanisms of asymmetric cell division. In 1997, he became a junior group leader at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna and joined IMBA in 2004.
Karolinska Institute
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
urban.Lendahl@ki.se
+46 852 48 7323
Urban Lendahl is professor in Genetics at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
University of Cambridge
Cambridge Centre for Proteomics
ksl23@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk
+44 (0)1223 760255
Dr. Kathryn Lilley is director of the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics which is based in the Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. Her interests centre on developing methods for quantitative proteomics, phosphoproteomics and methods for tracking changes in sub-cellular localization of the proteome in response to cell signalling events.
University of Leipzig
Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology
markus.loeffler@imise.uni-leipzig.de
+49 341 971 6100
Professor Loeffler is Director of the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidermiology (IMISE), and Director of The Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics (IZBI). He is also Scientific Director of the Coordination Centre for Clinical Trials, Leipzig (KKSL). His research interests include Systems Biology of regenerative tissues and clinical trial research.
EPFL
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research
Freddy.Radtke@epfl.ch
+41 21692.5964/5987
Prof Freddy Radtke is the Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. His research is focused on the molecular mechanisms controlling homeostasis of self-renewing organs and their dysregulation during tumorigenesis.
University of Cambridge
Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute
e.rawlins@gurdon.cam.ac.uk
+44 (0)1223 331164
Dr Rawlins studies stem cells in the mammalian lung. Her group is particularly interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms which control lung epithelial stem cell fate decisions. She has generated multiple genetically altered mouse strains to facilitate lung stem cell analysis in vivo.
Dresden University of Technology
Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry (IMB)
ingo.roeder@tu-dresden
+49 (0)351 458 60 60
Professor Roeder was appointed as the Head of the Institute of Medical Informatics and Biometry at Dresden Technical University in May 2010. He is guest fellow at the Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London and was previously the leader of the research group "DYNAmic Modeling of Stem Cell Organization" at the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig. His research focus is the theoretical analysis of stem cell organization using system biological approaches such as mathematical modelling and computer simulation. Particularly, he is interested in the analysis of stem cell fate decisions and of individual stem cell clone dynamics.
Helmholtz Center Muenchen – German Research Center for Environmental Health
Institute of Stem Cell Research
timm.schroeder@helmholtz-muenchen.de
+49 (0)89 3187 3758
Dr. Schroeder is an expert in the field of embryonic and adult hematopoiesis. He is interested in the molecular control of stem and progenitor cell fate decisions. Dr. Schroeder has pioneered the development of novel bioimaging approaches for the continuous long term analysis of stem cell systems at the single cell level.
University of Cambridge
Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research
ags39@cscr.cam.ac.uk
+44 (0)1223 760 233
Professor Austin Smith has expertise in the field of mouse developmental biology and has pioneered key advances in the field of Embryonic Stem Cell research. As co-ordinator of EuroSyStem, Professor Smith will act as overall leader for the project, will chair the meetings of the Board of Directors and the Project Steering Committee, and be responsible for all communication with the Commission on contractual Matters.
Oxford Gene Technology
ed.southern@bioch.ox.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 856340
Professor Edwin Southern moved to Oxford in 1985 to take up the post of the Whitley Professorship of Biochemistry and in 1988 introduced methods of analysis using oligonucleotide arrays or 'DNA Chips'. He founded Oxford Gene Technology in 1995 to commercialise his work in the areas of DNA Microarrays. Ed retains a position at Oxford University as Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus.
Pasteur Institute
Department of Developmental Biology
shaht@pasteur.fr
+33 1 4061 3520
The research of Dr Tajbakhsh focuses on identifying and characterising skeletal muscle stem cells. A genetic approach in the mouse has been used to examine how skeletal muscle stem cells are born, and how they acquire their identity. In parallel, the roles of symmetric and asymmetric cell divisions are investigated as a mechanism for governing stem cell self-renewal and differentiation during embryonic development and in the adult. Genetically engineered fluorescent markers permit the isolation of these stem cells for cell based therapies, as well as their tracking using in vivo imaging to follow their fate.
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh Research and Innovation Ltd
simon.tomlinson@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)1316 517252
Dr Simon Tomlinson’s group uses bioinformatics to gain understanding of key molecular features of stem cell biology. His research group are building a database, StemDB, which will be used to store stem cell related information such as cell line information and expression profiling data.
German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ)
Division of Cell Biology
a.trumpp@dkfz.de
+41 21 692 5817
Andreas Trumpp received his PhD in 1992 at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1994 he moved to the USA where he did postdoctoral research in the laboratories of J. Michael Bishop and Gail R. Martin at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). He is now Head of the Division of Cell Biology at DKFZ.
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Division of Molecular Genetics
m.v.lohuizen@nki.nl
+31 (0) 20 512 2030
Maarten is the head of the Division of Molecular Genetics, NKI, and is a professor at Utrecht University Medical School. His group is are studying the mechanism of stable inherited epigenetic transcriptional repression by Polycomb-group (Pc-G) protein complexes, and the effects of deregulation of Pc-G genes on Homeobox gene expression, development, Cell cycle control and cancer formation.
