Identifying how abnormal neural stem cell biology contributes to disease

Principal Advisor: Professor Michael Piper

Research group: Piper Group - Neural stem cells in development and disease

Organisational unit: School of Biomedical Sciences

The importance of NSC biology to brain development is underscored by disorders associated with abnormal NSC differentiation, including autism, hydrocephalus and macrocephaly. Despite the role of aberrant NSC development to these disorders, our understanding of the cellular and molecular deficits that contribute to disease onset and progression remains limited. Recently, my work has begun to focus on these disorders. Moreover, as the transcriptional landscape of many cancers resembles that of stem cells during development, I am also applying my expertise to understand how abnormal transcriptional activity contributes to cancer progression.