Philip Ingham | |
---|---|
Head, Department of Life Sciences, University of Bath | |
Assumed office 2023 | |
Professor of Developmental Biology,Nanyang Technological University | |
In office 2006–2023 | |
Professor of Developmental Biology,Imperial College London | |
In office 2013–2016 | |
Professor of Developmental Genetics,University of Sheffield | |
In office 1996–2009 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Philip William Ingham 19 March 1955 Liverpool,England |
Occupation | Geneticist |
Philip William Ingham (born 19 March 1955,Liverpool) is a British geneticist,currently the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine,a partnership between Nanyang Technological University,Singapore and Imperial College,London. Previously,he was the inaugural Director of the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter,UK [1] and prior to that was Vice Dean,Research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. [2]
Ingham was educated at Merchant Taylors' School,Crosby [3] near Liverpool and then at Queens' College,Cambridge,[ citation needed ] where after initially reading Philosophy and Theology he graduated in Genetics. He gained his Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Sussex under the supervision of J Robert S Whittle [4] before moving to the Laboratoire de Génétique Moleculaire des Eukaryotes in Strasbourg,France,as a Royal Society European Exchange Programme fellow. He returned to the UK in 1982,joining the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF,now known as Cancer Research UK) as a post-doctoral research fellow in the laboratory of David Ish-Horowicz. After a brief spell as a Research Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, [5] he re-joined the ICRF as a staff scientist,remaining there for ten years before moving to the University of Sheffield,where he established the MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics. [6] He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1995, [7] a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001 and Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002. [8] In 2005,he became the second recipient of the Medal of the Genetics Society of Great Britain [9] and in 2007 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He has served on numerous international Scientific Advisory Boards and funding committees and was President of the International Society of Developmental Biologists from 2013-2017. In 2014 he was awarded the Waddington Medal by the British Society for Developmental Biology. [10] He has lived and worked in Singapore since 2005.
As a graduate student,Ingham isolated a novel homoeotic mutation in Drosophila,which he named trithorax (trx). [11] Using genetic mosaic analysis,he showed that the trx gene is required for the maintenance of the determined state of cells, [12] presaging the current understanding of the Trithorax-group proteins as key epigenetic regulators throughout the animal kingdom. Subsequently,he pioneered the molecular analysis of the process of segmentation in the Drosophila embryo,through the simultaneous analysis the expression of patterns of pair rule genes using the technique of in situ hybridisation. [13] These studies led to his interest in what is now known as the Hedgehog signalling pathway;Ingham's genetic studies identified the core components of this pathway [14] and in particular the role of the Patched protein as the receptor for the Hedgehog ligand. [15] In 1993,in collaboration with Andy McMahon and Cliff Tabin,Ingham's research group discovered the vertebrate homologues of the Drosophila hedgehog gene,including Sonic hedgehog. [16] This finding set in train a surge of interest in this pathway,leading amongst other things,to the recognition of its role in a number of human cancers and to the development of a novel anti-cancer drug that specifically targets the pathway. [17] Ingham was in the vanguard of researchers to adopt the zebrafish,Danio rerio,as a model for the analysis of vertebrate development and more recently for the study of processes related to human diseases.
Ingham has authored or co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed scientific primary research papers and review articles. Notable amongst the latter are his 1988 review of the Molecular Genetics of embryonic Pattern formation in Drosophila [18] and his 2001 review,co-authored with Andrew McMahon,on the Principles and Paradigms of Hedgehog signalling. [19]
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration,asexual reproduction,metamorphosis,and the growth and differentiation of stem cells in the adult organism.
Sonic hedgehog protein (SHH) is encoded for by the SHH gene. The protein is named after the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog.
In cellular biology,paracrine signaling is a form of cell signaling,a type of cellular communication in which a cell produces a signal to induce changes in nearby cells,altering the behaviour of those cells. Signaling molecules known as paracrine factors diffuse over a relatively short distance,as opposed to cell signaling by endocrine factors,hormones which travel considerably longer distances via the circulatory system;juxtacrine interactions;and autocrine signaling. Cells that produce paracrine factors secrete them into the immediate extracellular environment. Factors then travel to nearby cells in which the gradient of factor received determines the outcome. However,the exact distance that paracrine factors can travel is not certain.
In evolutionary developmental biology,homeosis is the transformation of one organ into another,arising from mutation in or misexpression of certain developmentally critical genes,specifically homeotic genes. In animals,these developmental genes specifically control the development of organs on their anteroposterior axis. In plants,however,the developmental genes affected by homeosis may control anything from the development of a stamen or petals to the development of chlorophyll. Homeosis may be caused by mutations in Hox genes,found in animals,or others such as the MADS-box family in plants. Homeosis is a characteristic that has helped insects become as successful and diverse as they are.
A morphogen is a substance whose non-uniform distribution governs the pattern of tissue development in the process of morphogenesis or pattern formation,one of the core processes of developmental biology,establishing positions of the various specialized cell types within a tissue. More specifically,a morphogen is a signaling molecule that acts directly on cells to produce specific cellular responses depending on its local concentration.
Walter Jakob Gehring was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at the Biozentrum Basel of the University of Basel,Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two years as a research assistant of Ernst Hadorn he joined Alan Garen's group at Yale University in New Haven as a postdoctoral fellow.
The Hedgehog signaling pathway is a signaling pathway that transmits information to embryonic cells required for proper cell differentiation. Different parts of the embryo have different concentrations of hedgehog signaling proteins. The pathway also has roles in the adult. Diseases associated with the malfunction of this pathway include cancer.
A gap gene is a type of gene involved in the development of the segmented embryos of some arthropods. Gap genes are defined by the effect of a mutation in that gene,which causes the loss of contiguous body segments,resembling a gap in the normal body plan. Each gap gene,therefore,is necessary for the development of a section of the organism.
Polycomb-group proteins are a family of protein complexes first discovered in fruit flies that can remodel chromatin such that epigenetic silencing of genes takes place. Polycomb-group proteins are well known for silencing Hox genes through modulation of chromatin structure during embryonic development in fruit flies. They derive their name from the fact that the first sign of a decrease in PcG function is often a homeotic transformation of posterior legs towards anterior legs,which have a characteristic comb-like set of bristles.
Philip Arden Beachy is Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto,California and an Associate at Stanford's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
Hairless,also known as H,is a well-characterized Drosophila gene. Since Hairless is a dominant loss of function mutation,many mutations to Hairless are embryonic lethal,but there are several viable hairless mutants. This specific Drosophila gene is involved in the Notch signaling pathway (NSP) by acting as a suppressor of the organism's Notch signaling. This interaction of the NSP can be seen in Figure 1.
Protein odd-skipped-related 1 is a transcription factor that in humans is encoded by the OSR1 gene. The OSR1 and OSR2 transcription factors participate in the normal development of body parts such as the kidney.
Trithorax-group proteins (TrxG) are a heterogeneous collection of proteins whose main action is to maintain gene expression. They can be categorized into three general classes based on molecular function:
Patched (Ptc) is a conserved 12-pass transmembrane protein receptor that plays an obligate negative regulatory role in the Hedgehog signaling pathway in insects and vertebrates. Patched is an essential gene in embryogenesis for proper segmentation in the fly embryo,mutations in which may be embryonic lethal. Patched functions as the receptor for the Hedgehog protein and controls its spatial distribution,in part via endocytosis of bound Hedgehog protein,which is then targeted for lysosomal degradation.
Matthew P. Scott is an American biologist who was the tenth president of the Carnegie Institution for Science. While at Stanford University,Scott studied how embryonic and later development is governed by proteins that control gene activity and cell signaling processes. He co- discovered homeobox genes in Drosophila melanogaster working with Amy J. Weiner at Indiana University.
Utpal Banerjee is a distinguished professor of the department of molecular,cell and developmental biology at UCLA. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from St. Stephen's College,Delhi University,India and obtained his Master of Science degree in physical chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur,India. In 1984,he obtained a PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology where he was also a postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Seymour Benzer from 1984-1988.
Michael Levine is an American developmental and cell biologist at Princeton University,where he is the Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and a Professor of Molecular Biology.
Clifford James Tabin is chairman of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Gooseberry (gsb) is a segment polarity gene located on chromosome 2 of the Drosophila genome. Gooseberry is known for its interactions with key embryonic signaling pathways Wingless and Hedgehog. The gene also has clinical significance,being linked to diseases such as Waardenburg Syndrome and rhabdomyosarcoma.
Lingadahalli Subrahmanya Shashidhara is an Indian developmental biologist,geneticist and a professor of biology currently serving as the Centre Director of National Centre for Biological Sciences,Bengaluru,India. He is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,Pune,and at Ashoka University,Sonepat,India. He heads the LSS Laboratory at IISER and is known for his studies on Drosophila,particularly the evolution of appendages and functions of homeotic selector genes. He is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy,Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences,India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards,in 2008,for his contributions to biological sciences.