Cell Growth & Division

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

EDUCATION:
• PhD University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia 1988
• BS Flinders University, South Australia 1983
Post-doctoral experience:
• Postdoc, Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria, 1988-1989
• Postdoc, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, UK, 1989-1992

HONORS AND AWARDS:
• Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular Cell Biology
• Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scientist

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Core interests are in the basic biology of murine and human embryonic stem cells and how this understanding can be used to develop cell based therapies to cure degenerative diseases and for the repair of damaged tissue. Research in the murine ES cell (mESC) area includes:
• understanding how ESCs retain their ability to proliferate indefinitely while retaining their unlimited differentiation potential
• using ES cells as a model to understand aspects of cancer
• the study of cell cycle regulation and differentiation
• characterization of glycoprotein, glycolipid epitopes on the cell surface and how this relates to ESC biology
• understanding the biology of pluripotent cells in the preimplantation-early postimplantation stages of development
• nuclear structure and chromosome dynamics in stem cells

Interests in human ES cells (hESCs) are focused on:
• understanding cell cycle control and self-renewal
• understanding the basic mechanisms by which pluripotent cells make fate decisions in vitro and as part of human development
• the development of strategies that will allow us to differentiate hESCs into pancreatic b-cells as part of a therapy for diabetes