2000 - | Professor | Department of Biology, University of York |
1993 - 2000 | Reader | Department of Biology, University of York |
1991 - 1993 | Senior Lecturer | Department of Biology, University of York |
1973 - 1991 | Lecturer | Department of Biology, University of York |
1971 - 1973 | Research Associate | Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va |
1971 | DPhil | School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex |
1968 | BSc Biology | University of Sussex |
I study muscle differentiation, disease and regulation of contraction using the Drosophila flight and jump muscles as model systems. My lab use molecular genetics (including transgenics), cell biology and biochemistry to determine the molecular details of these processes. Major goals are to understand the differentiation (assembly) of the muscle sarcomere and molecular details of the regulation of muscle contraction by calcium and the troponin-tropomyosin complex. We use the flight muscles as a good system for genetic, cell biological, biochemical and biophysical approaches to muscle biology as they are large (relatively!) to study human mutations that cause congenital myopathies.
Discoveries
That in Drosophila muscle human actin mutants show all aspects of the human disease, and one late-onset disease mutant is caused by reduced mechanical strength of sarcomeres
Status | Name | Project |
---|---|---|
Honorary Fellow p/t 50% | Dr Adam Middleton | Cell biology of muscle development/function |
Visiting Professor f/t | Prof Belinda Bullard | PI. Molecular biology of insect muscle proteins and their assembly into the sarcomere |