Philip Ingham

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Philip William Ingham FRS, FMedSci, Hon. FRCP (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]

Contents

Career

Ingham was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby [3] near Liverpool and then at Queens' College in the University of 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.

Scientific Contributions

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.

Publications

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]

Related Research Articles

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 encoded by the SHH gene in the species Homo sapiens

Sonic hedgehog is a protein encoded for by the SHH gene. The protein is named after the character Sonic the Hedgehog.

Paracrine signaling

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.

Morphogen Biological substance that guides development by non-uniform distribution

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.

Trudi Schüpbach is a Swiss-American molecular biologist. She is an Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, where her laboratory studies molecular and genetic mechanisms in fruit fly oogenesis.

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.

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.

OSR1

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:

  1. histone-modifying TrxG proteins
  2. chromatin-remodeling TrxG proteins
  3. DNA-binding TrxG proteins,

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

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 independently 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.

Elizabeth Robertson British geneticist

Elizabeth Jane Robertson is a British developmental biologist based at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. She is Professor of Developmental Biology at Oxford and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. She is best known for her pioneering work in developmental genetics, showing that genetic mutations could be introduced into the mouse germ line by using genetically altered embryonic stem cells. This discovery opened up a major field of experimentation for biologists and clinicians.

Clifford Tabin

Clifford James Tabin is chairman of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Ruth Lehmann is a developmental and cell biologist. She is the Director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, succeeding David Page. She previously was affiliated with the New York University School of Medicine, where she was the Director of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Cell Biology, and the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology. Her research focuses on germ cells and embryogenesis.

L. S. Shashidhara

Lingadahalli Subrahmanya Shashidhara is an Indian developmental biologist, geneticist and a professor of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, and is currently on lien to the faculty of Biology at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India. He heads the LSS Laboratory at IISER and is known for his studies on Drosophila, particularly 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.

Kathryn Virginia Anderson was an American developmental biologist researching about the various gene and protein interactions that guide the process of embryogenesis and especially neurulation.

References

  1. ↑ "Living Systems Institute | Living Systems Institute | University of Exeter".
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ › Alumni Career Profiles › Philip Ingham (1973 Leaver) – Professor of Developmental Biology Archived 21 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ List of University of Sussex alumni – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  5. ↑ "LMB Alumni List".
  6. ↑ Our History | The Bateson Centre Archived 8 June 2014 at archive.today
  7. ↑ "EMBO members elected 1995". EMBO J. 14 (13): 3288. 1995. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1995.tb07332.x. PMC   394391 .
  8. ↑ "2002 Royal Society Fellows".
  9. ↑ Genetics Society Website > Prizes > Genetics Society Medal 2005
  10. ↑ An interview with Phil Ingham
  11. ↑ Ingham, Philip & Robert Whittle (1980). "Trithorax: a new homoeotic mutation of Drosophila melanogaster causing transformations of abdominal and thoracic imaginal segments". Molecular and General Genetics. 179 (3): 607–614. doi:10.1007/bf00271751. S2CID   7514185.
  12. ↑ Ingham, PW (1985). "A clonal analysis of the requirement for the trithorax gene in the diversification of segments in Drosophila". Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology. 89: 349–65. PMID   4093752.
  13. ↑ Howard, K & Ingham, P (1986). "Regulatory interactions between the segmentation genes fushi tarazu, hairy, and engrailed in the Drosophila blastoderm". Cell. 44 (6): 949–957. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(86)90018-8. PMID   3955654. S2CID   28770534.
  14. ↑ Forbes, AJ; Nakano, Y; Taylor, AM & Ingham, PW (1993). "Genetic analysis of hedgehog signalling in the Drosophila embryo". Development. 119: 115–24. doi:10.1242/dev.119.Supplement.115. PMID   8049467.
  15. ↑ Ingham, PW; Taylor, AM & Nakano, Y (1991). "Role of the Drosophila patched gene in positional signalling". Nature. 353 (6340): 184–7. Bibcode:1991Natur.353..184I. doi:10.1038/353184a0. PMID   1653906. S2CID   4361236.
  16. ↑ Biologists Find Key Genes That Shape Patterning of Embryos – New York Times
  17. ↑ Pin by Cancer Research UK on Skin Cancer | Pinterest
  18. ↑ Ingham PW (1988). "The molecular genetics of embryonic pattern formation in Drosophila". Nature. 335 (6185): 25–34. Bibcode:1988Natur.335...25I. doi:10.1038/335025a0. PMID   2901040. S2CID   4311200.
  19. ↑ Ingham PW, McMahon AP (2001). "Hedgehog signaling in animal development: paradigms and principles". Genes & Development. 15 (23): 3059–87. doi: 10.1101/gad.938601 . PMID   11731473.
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