You will be a committed enthusiastic team member, a good communicator and an independent worker. Normal human development requires genes to be switched on or off in particular parts of the body at precise times. Our research is focussed on the role that transcription factors play in human development and disease. Disturbances in these transcription factors have been linked to diseases like dwarfism, diabetes, and some cancers. Determination of the sex of the baby, and how its nerves and bones form, are some roles of these SOX genes.
Human development requires genes to be switched on or off in particular organs at precise times.
SOX transcription factors have critical functions in a number of developmental processes including sex determination, neurogenesis and skeleton formation. Disturbances, or mutations in transcription factors have severe consequences and we study mutations to gain insight into the normal function of these factors at the biochemical and cellular level. Since they act on DNA, transcription factors such as SRY must be imported into the nucleus after being synthesised in the cytoplasm. We found that SRY interacts with importin, molecules that dock SRY onto the nuclear membrane prior to import. Quantitation of fluorescence was achieved using NIH image software.