Professor John Sparrow
Emeritus Professor

Profile

Biography

Biography

Research

Overview

I retired from active research in 2012. My research group studied muscle differentiation, disease and regulation of contraction using the Drosophila flight and jump muscles. Major interests were the differentiation (assembly) of the muscle sarcomere, the molecular details of muscle contraction and its regulation by calcium through the troponin-tropomyosin complex. We developed Drosophila as a powerful system for genetic, cell biological, biochemical and biophysical approaches to muscle biology and to the study of human mutations causing congenital myopathies.

Publications

Selected publications

Sparrow, J.C. and Schöck,  F. (2009) "The initial steps of myofibril assembly: integrins pave the way" Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 293-298.

Laing N.G., Dye D.E., Wallgren-Pettersson C., Richard G., Monnier N., Lillis S., Winder T.L., Lochmuller H., Graziano C., Mitrani-Rosenbaum S., Twomey D., Sparrow J.C., Beggs A.H., Nowak K.J. (2009) Mutations and polymorphisms of the skeletal muscle alpha-actin gene (ACTA1). Human Mutation 30, 1267-1277.

Haigh S.E., Salvi S.S., Sevdali M., Stark M., Goulding D., Clayton J.D., Bullard B., Sparrow, J.C., Nongthomba U. (2010) Drosophila indirect flight muscle specific Act88F actin mutants as a model system for studying congenital myopathies of the human ACTA1 skeletal muscle actin gene. Neuromuscular Disorders. 20, 363-374.

Vikhorev P.G., Vikhoreva N.N., Cammarato A.C., Sparrow J.C. (2010). In vitro motility of native thin filaments from Drosophila indirect flight muscles reveals that the held-up-2 TnI mutation affects calcium activation. J. Muscle Research and Cell Motility 31(3), 171-179.

External activities

Memberships

• Chair, Steering Committee, BBSRC Drosophila IGF programme

Editorial duties

• Editorial Board : Journal Muscle Research and Cell Motility