Email: d.strutt@sheffield.ac.uk

Research profile and key clinical specialties

David is interested in understanding how the human body grows and develops to form complex tissues and organ systems.

This involves the regulation and coordination of three processes: first, the multiplication of cells; second, the differentiation of the right types of cells in the right positions; third, the correct orientation of cells relative to each other.

It is this final process in which we are primarily interested. As the orientation of cells relative to each other is a fundamental conserved process in animal development, we are able to study it using a model experimental system, of which the most powerful and flexible currently available is the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

The simplicity of manipulation of Drosophila, particularly for studying the function of genes, has allowed the identification of a large number of genes that are involved in the coordination of cell orientation.

Two key publications

• Hale, R., Brittle, A.L., Fisher, K.H., Monk, N.A.M., and Strutt, D. (2015). Cellular interpretation of the long-range gradient of Four-jointed activity in the Drosophila wing. eLife 4.
• Strutt, H., Searle, E., Thomas-Macarthur, V., Brookfield, R., and Strutt, D. (2013). A Cul-3-BTB ubiquitylation pathway regulates junctional levels and asymmetry of core planar polarity proteins. Development. 140: 1693-1702.

Possible PhD projects

• Model organism approaches to mechanistic analysis of planar polarity pathway gene mutations implicated in human congenital birth defects

More information

2 PhD students currently.

Keywords: Body, tissues, organ, cells, genes, planar, polarity, proteins, David, Strutt, Sheffield

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