Sally Lowell Research Group

The aim of my research is to understand the lineage decisions of pluripotent cells. I am interested in how local communication between individual cells influences these decisions. We are also trying to understand how changes in adhesion and tissue morphology modulate differentiation during early development.

Aims and areas of interest

We aim to understand how cells steer a path from pluripotency towards lineage commitment, and in particular to understand why differentiation response can be variable between individual cells. We have identified transcription factors that control the first steps towards differentiation, and which can be exploited as markers of early primed or committed states. We are also investigating how events outside the nucleus, particularly cell adhesion and tissue morphology, may influence the way that pluripotent cells receive and interpret differentiation cues. Our lab are developing quantitative imaging tools for monitoring changes in tissue morphology and cellular organisation in order to ask how these relate to differentiation competence. We are also developing novel tools for studying how cells influence their neighbours. We are also developing novel tools for studying how cells influence their neighbours. By uncovering the interplay between transcription, signalling, and morphogenesis, our ultimate aim is to discover the hidden rules behind the apparent unpredictability of the differentiation response. 

Publications

1. Enabling neighbour-labelling: using synthetic biology to explore how cells influence their neighbours, 2 Jan 2024, In: Development, 151, 1, 13 p., dev201955. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.201955

2. Pax6 mutant cerebral organoids partially recapitulate phenotypes of Pax6 mutant mouse strains, 28 Nov 2022 In: PLoS ONE, vol. 17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278147

3. Repurposing the lineage-determining transcription factor Atoh1 without redistributing its genomic binding sites (23 pages) 7 Nov 2022 In: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, vol. 10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.1016367

4. Twist1 interacts with beta/delta-Catenins during neural tube development and regulates fate transition in cranial neural crest cells (59 pages) 8 Aug 2022 In: Development, vol. 149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200068

5. SyNPL: Synthetic notch pluripotent cell lines to monitor and manipulate cell interactions in vitro and in vivo(46 pages) 23 Jun 2022 In: Development, vol. 149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200226

6. In preprints: The problem of producing precise patterns (2 pages) 1 Apr 2022 In: Development, vol. 149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200710

7. The future of conferences (3 pages) 4 Jan 2022 In: Development, vol. 149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200438

8. Cadherins in early neural development (16 pages) 1 Apr 2021 In: Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-021-03815-9

9. You should always keep in touch with your friends: Community effects in biology20 Aug 2020 In: Nature reviews Molecular cell biology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-020-00290-1

10. Single-cell lineage tracing unveils a role for Tcf15 in haematopoiesis, (5 pages) 23 Jul 2020 In: Nature, vol. 583, pp. 585-589. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2503-6

Group Members