UCL Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology

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Prof Roberto Mayor

Prof Roberto Mayor is a Professor of Developmental and Cellular Neurobiology He was named International Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). He is a member of the editorial board of Development and Developmental Dynamics and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Developmental Biology. He was founder and president of the Latin American Society of Developmental Biology (LASDB) Telephone: 020 7679 3323, (Int: 33323) r.mayor@ucl.ac.uk

Research

Lab website

The primary aim of our research group is to elucidate the mechanism that underlies the development of the Neural Crest.

We would like to know how Neural Crest cells acquire their identity within the ectoderm and how their migration and differentiation is controlled.

The Neural Crest is a group of cells found in all vertebrate embryos. It forms in the neural folds at the border of the neural plate and gives rise to the Peripheral Nervous System,   as well as the cartilage, bone and muscle in the face and neck, pigmented cells in the skin, several endocrine glands and part of the heart. It is this extraordinary ability of the Neural Crest to become many different types of cell that has attracted the attention of many biologists. The second astonishing characteristic of neural crest cells is that they are able to migrate very long distances in the embryo. The neural crest has been called the “explorer of the embryo” as it is one of the embryonic cell types that migrate most during development, eventually colonizing almost every tissue.

The primary aim of our research group is to elucidate the mechanism that underlies the development of the Neural Crest. We would like to know how Neural Crest cells acquire their identity within the ectoderm and how their migration and differentiation is controlled. We study neural crest development in zebrafish and frog ( Xenopus laevis) embryos as these two animal models offer several complementary advantages.

Selected Publications:

• Theveneau E, Marchant L, Kuriyama S, Gull M, Moepps B, Parsons M, Mayor R. Collective chemotaxis requires contact-dependent cell polarity. Dev Cell. 2010 Jul 20;19(1):39-53.
• Mayor R, Carmona-Fontaine C. Keeping in touch with contact inhibition of locomotion. Trends Cell Biol. 2010 Jun;20(6):319-28
• Carmona-Fontaine C, Matthews HK, Kuriyama S, Moreno M, Dunn GA, Parsons M, Stern CD, Mayor R. Contact inhibition of locomotion in vivo controls neural crest directional migration. Nature. 2008 Dec 18;456(7224):957-61
• Matthews, H, Marchante, L,  Carmona-Fontaine, C, Kuriyama, S,  Larraín, J, Holt, M, Parsons, M and Mayor, R. (2008). Directional migration of Neural Crest cells in vivo is regulated by Syndecan-4/Rac1 and non-canonical Wnt signalling/RhoA. Development 135, 1771-1780
• Steventon, B, Carmona-Fontaine, C, Mayor, R (2005). Genetic network during neural crest induction: from cell specification to cell survival. Sem Cell Dev Biol 16, 647-54
• De Calisto J, Araya C, Marchant L, Riaz CF, Mayor R. (2005).  Essential role of non-canonical Wnt signalling in neural crest migration. Development, 132, 2587-2597
• Aybar. M. and Mayor, R. (2002). Early induction of neural crest cells: lessons learned from Xenopus, zebrafish and chick.  Current Opinion in Genetic and Development, 12, 452-458.