Research Fellow

and adhesion in the mechanics of cells and tissues. A particular interest is to understand the cycle of feedback between geometry, differentiation and mechanical changes that shape tissues during morphogenesis. In our research, we combine analytical and characterisation techniques from physics and engineering with molecular cell biology techniques and optical microscopy to study questions relevant to cell and developmental biology. We interact closely with the Institute for the Physics of Living Systems, a vibrant scientific community. IPLS is a cross-faculty initiative at UCL that brings together researchers from the life sciences, physics, engineering, and mathematics to study the physical principles underlying Life. The London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) is an interdisciplinary enterprise between University College London, King’s College London and Imperial College London. In bringing together world-class infrastructure and leading nanotechnology research activities, the Centre aims to attain the critical mass to compete with the best facilities abroad. The LCN has strong relationships with the broader nanotechnology and commercial communities, and is involved in much major collaboration. As the world’s only such facility to be located in the heart of a metropolis, the LCN has superb access to corporate, investment and industrial partners. It is at the forefront of training in nanotechnology, and has a strong media presence aimed at educating the public and bringing transparency to this emerging science. About the role This position is part of an interdisciplinary collaborative project between the Francis Crick Institute, the University of Warwick, the University of Edinburgh and UCL. The aim of the project is to understand the principles that underlie the acquisition and organisation of tissue shape in organoids. Self-organisation necessitates a symmetry-breaking event that causes gene expression changes in a subpopulation of cells, resulting in changes in molecular and mechanical properties that shape the form and function of tissues. This process is iterative. As new contacts form between cells of different lineages, as some cells lose contact with the extracellular matrix, and as new secreted molecules are produced, further rounds of organisation take place. Thus, predicting the outcome of morphogenesis lies at the interface between physics and biology as it involves cycles of changes in mechanics and gene expression that feedback across multiple spatiotemporal s cales. Our team will integrate physics and biological perspectives to understand and to predict how cycles of gene expression and mechanical changes give rise to complex morphogenesis of tissues and organs over a duration of several days. In this project, we propose to determine how cell differentiation and cellular-scale mechanical changes combine to control shape acquisition using organoids generated in vitro from embryonic stem cells (neuruloids). This is an attractive system to reverse engineer as neuruloids reproducibly acquire complex tissue shapes and comprise multiple cell-types but remain sufficiently simple to allow spatiotemporal characterisation of cell morphology, mechanics, differentiation and gene expression. We will determine how mechanics, adhesion, and gene expression interplay at the cell-scale to guide shape acquisition at the tissue-scale. For more information on the role, please review the job description Customer advert reference: B04-08073