Developmental Molecular Mechanisms

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Group Leader & Joint Divisional Head, Division of Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge

EDUCATION:
1981 PhD, University of Zurich, Switzerland

BACKGROUND:
After her PhD, Dr Bienz joined the laboratory of John Gurdon at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, where she worked on the control of heat-shock gene expression in Xenopus oocytes. In 1986, she became a Faculty Member at the University of Zurich, where she started to work on the transcriptional control of Hox genes in Drosophila development in response to positional information. She thus discovered the pivotal role of Wnt signalling within an inductive cascade in the embryonic midgut, emanating from Hox genes expressed in the visceral mesoderm and patterning the subjacent endoderm.

MEMBERSHIP:
• European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

AWARDS:
• 2003 Fellow of the Royal Society
• 2006 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our aim is to understand the molecular events underlying Wnt signal transduction. We focus on positively-acting components of this pathway that are potential drug targets, and on their molecular interactions. These include the recently discovered Pygopus-BCL9 complex that facilitates the transcriptional activity of beta-catenin in colorectal cancer cell lines. We also study Dishevelled and its role as a dynamic polymeric adaptor between the Wnt transmembrane receptors and the Axin-APC complex, which itself promotes the inactivation and degradation of beta-catenin.