We have several research interests in the lab that are helping to understand:
• The development of the immune-activating dendritic cell (DC) subsets from haematopoietic stem and progenitors
• Haematopoiesis using unique mouse models (LoxCode mice, which allow study of native haematopoiesis by in situ DNA barcoding)
• Haematopoiesis using unique human models (multilineage human Haematopoiesis using cyTOkines and Niches In Culture, HaemaTONIC)
• Cancer development, metastasis and drug resistance (leukaemia, breast cancer, other solid cancers)
• Developmental biology including fate specification during embryogenesis
• Immunology, including T and B cell fate specification
To discover the steps of how a stem cell divides and ultimately turns into cell types, tissues, organs or cancer, we interrogate the individual cells and clonal trajectories, rather than the population as a whole. This is akin to understanding the role of each player in a football team – not only the team’s result. To this end we have invested heavily in novel molecular tools, approaches and computational methods:
• Synthetic biology
• Cellular barcoding
• Cell division tracking
• Single cell, clonal and spatial multi-omics
• Computational tools
• Mathematical modelling
• Machine Learning approaches
Our ultimate goal is to redefine how biology is examined, and believe that studying biology through the lens of clones will lead to new insights never before achieved. We hope to unravel the clonal and molecular trajectories in haematopoiesis, cancer, development and immunology, with the goal of identifying new targets to enhance cell engineering for immune therapies and identify weak spots in cancer evolution for new therapies.