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Dr Matthew Towers

MRC Career Development Fellow

Matthew Towers obtained a B.Sc. in Genetics from the University of Leeds, UK, in 1998 and a Ph.D. from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, in 2002, on the roles of D cyclins in snapdragon leaf development. Following a technical position in the lab of Andrea Munsterberg at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, he undertook a postdoctoral position with Cheryll Tickle at the Universities of Dundee, UK, in 2005 and then Bath, UK, in 2007, studying the role of Sonic Hedgehog signalling in the growth and patterning of the embryonic chick wing bud. Matt moved to the University of Sheffield in 2011 to establish an independent research group and he will take up an MRC Career Development Fellowship in January 2012. Matt's current research is focussed on how patterning and growth are integrated during vertebrate limb development with implications for stem cell and regenerative biology. Matt is currently looking for a postdoctoral researcher.

Research

Summary for nonspecialist

We are interested in how complex structures are correctly formed in the body. The crucial events that control how we develop occur during the earliest stages of life in the embryo. In particular, our research is centred on how limbs develop and we mostly work on chicken embryos because we can look directly at how they develop by opening a small window in the egg.

We want to understand how cells divide for the correct number of times in order to generate correctly patterned limbs. This research is important because it can give insights into the mechanisms that cause cells to lose control of cell division and turn into cancerous tumours. In addition, by revealing how digits develop, we can use this knowledge to understand the causes of birth defects that affect the limb and other structures in the body.

Technical summary

The vertebrate limb bud is a fantastic system to understand how a precise pattern of structures is specified and laid down during embryogenesis.

A specialized population of mesenchyme cells at the posterior margin of the limb bud called the polarizing region (figure 1) produces the diffusible morphogen Sonic hedgehog (Shh) that controls the number and identity of the digits across the antero-posterior axis (thumb to little finger).

We are interested in how Shh patterns limbs with different numbers of digits; three in the chick wing (figures 2 and 3), four in the chick leg and five in the mouse hand.

A central focus is to understand the roles that cell proliferation regulators have in digit patterning (figure 1).

Current projects involve integrating findings on digit patterning with regenerative and stem cell biology. Other projects involve understanding how the series of elements is laid down along the proximo-distal axis (shoulder to finger tips) and unravelling the basis of evolutionary transitions in limb development.

Normal chick wing digit skeleton following replacement of the polarizing region with a GFP-expressing polarizing region. Cells derived from the polarizing region (green) form a thin stripe of cells along the margin of the most-posterior digit

Classical grafting experiment in which a GFP-expressing chick wing polarizing region grafted to the anterior margin of another chick wing bud induces a mirror image duplication of the digits

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