Name: Dr. Jenny Gallop

Position: Group Leader

Research Description:

Gallop Group website | Europe PMC | Pubmed

 

 

 

Membranes, actin and morphogenesis

How do cells move their membranes? The cell membrane, as the boundary of the cell, is moulded into shape by dynamic remodelling of its links to the actin cytoskeleton during cell division, polarisation, movement, differentiation and for everyday housekeeping.

In disease, the actin machinery is hijacked by invading pathogens. Some actin regulators are overexpressed and redeployed during cancer metastasis, and control of the actin cytoskeleton can be disrupted in genetic diseases, causing intellectual disability, kidney dysfunction and other problems.

We are studying how actin filaments polymerise at two types of specialised structures at the cell membrane: filopodia, which are fingerlike protrusions, and endocytic vesicles, which bud inwards to bring in components from the membrane or environment.

We have developed model systems using phospholipid bilayers and frog egg extracts that allow us to follow the molecular events of actin assembly in different contexts. By focusing on unusual predictions from these in vitro assays, we work out how the actin cytoskeleton is regulated by imaging cells in accessible, native developmental contexts in fruit fly and frog embryos.

Lab Memberships

Gallop Group (Principal Investigator/Director)

Contact Information

Address:
The Gurdoon Institute
Univ. Cambridge
Cambridge
United Kingdom

Web Page: https://gallop.group