Rolly Wiegand
In 2005, Dr Wiegand was appointed to establish and lead a new optical imaging facility, the Confocal and Advanced Light Microscopy (CALM) at the newly opened Queen's Medical Research Institut. Through this new facility, he has not only delivered and managed a wide range of communal scientific imaging services, but also provided imaging-related training, teaching and strategic planning across the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
In 2012, he was instrumental in initiating and coordinating a successful grant application to the RCUKs, as part of the ‘Next Generation of Optical Microscopy’ initiative. This award secured £1.74m as an investment into the development of central, cutting-edge technologies for in vivo optical imaging. As part of the implementation of the new equipment, Dr Wiegand was centrally involved in the specification and design of the required microscope systems and new custom-built rooms in the QMRI.
Jeffrey Pollard
In 2005, Dr Wiegand was appointed to establish and lead a new optical imaging facility, the Confocal and Advanced Light Microscopy (CALM) at the newly opened Queen's Medical Research Institut. Through this new facility, he has not only delivered and managed a wide range of communal scientific imaging services, but also provided imaging-related training, teaching and strategic planning across the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
In 2012, he was instrumental in initiating and coordinating a successful grant application to the RCUKs, as part of the ‘Next Generation of Optical Microscopy’ initiative. This award secured £1.74m as an investment into the development of central, cutting-edge technologies for in vivo optical imaging. As part of the implementation of the new equipment, Dr Wiegand was centrally involved in the specification and design of the required microscope systems and new custom-built rooms in the QMRI.
Professor Jeffrey W.
Pollard (FRSE) is director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the
University of Edinburgh. He was previously Director of the Centre for Study of
Reproductive Biology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in New York.
Professor Pollard’s
research has focused on women’s reproductive health. His current research interest is on
understanding the tumor microenvironment and the mechanisms of action of
oestrogen and progesterone in controlling cell division in vivo. His research
applies state of the art high throughput methods and novel in vivo imaging
methods to define cellular interactions and the novel signaling pathways
involved in these interactions.
Alan Serrels
Dr Alan Serrels joined the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre in 2008, as a Research Fellow and has set-up a state-of-the-art intra-vital cancer phenotypic imaging platform. Prior to this Dr Serrels worked at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in both Professor Margaret Frame's lab on biomarker discovery for the Phase-1 clinical trial of the Src tyrosine kinase inhibitor Dasatinib and in Professor Kurt Anderson's lab on the role of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and Src in tumour cell biology in vivo and the application of advanced microscopy in the in vivo tumour environment.
The main focus of Dr Serral's current research is understanding the role of tyrosine kinases in the regulation of the tumour microenvironment, with particular focus on angiogenesis, leukocyte infiltration and evasion/re-education of the host immune response together with the application of advanced microscopy techniques to in vivo cancer research.
Dr Alan Serrels joined the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre in 2008, as a Research Fellow and has set-up a state-of-the-art intra-vital cancer phenotypic imaging platform. Prior to this Dr Serrels worked at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in both Professor Margaret Frame's lab on biomarker discovery for the Phase-1 clinical trial of the Src tyrosine kinase inhibitor Dasatinib and in Professor Kurt Anderson's lab on the role of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and Src in tumour cell biology in vivo and the application of advanced microscopy in the in vivo tumour environment.
The main focus of Dr Serral's current research is understanding the role of tyrosine kinases in the regulation of the tumour microenvironment, with particular focus on angiogenesis, leukocyte infiltration and evasion/re-education of the host immune response together with the application of advanced microscopy techniques to in vivo cancer research.
Dave Lyons
Professor Lyons
joined the Centre for Neuroregeneration at the University of Edinburgh in 2009
through being awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship, he has gone on to attain
a research prize from the Lister Institute and is now a Wellcome Trust Senior
Research Fellow.
Professor Lyon’s research
interest is the molecular and cellular basis of nervous system development. His laboratory is working to elucidate the
mechanisms that orchestrate the formation of myelinated axons, using zebra fish
as model organism. They employ a range
of live in vivo imaging techniques to study cell behaviour and cell-cell
interactions during central nervous system myelination. In parallel with this, a new forward genetic
gene discovery screen is being undertaken to identify the molecular basis of
central nervous system (CNS) myelination by oligodendrocytes.
Dirk Sieger
Dr Dirk Sieger is a principle investigator in the Centre
for Neuroregeneration at
the University of Edinburgh; he joined the University of Edinburgh in 2012
after being awarded a Chancellors Fellowship and also holds a Cancer Research
UK Career Establishment Award, a Wellcome Trust-University of Edinburgh
Institutional Support Fund award and a Royal Scoiety Research Grant. Prior to this he held an EMBO long-term
fellowship at the EMBL in Heidlberg.
Dr Sieger’s work has
focused on signalling mechanisms that instruct macrophages and microglia in
vivo. His current interest is in the interactions of residential brain
macrophages (microglia) and brain tumours, by using a combination of genetic
and pharmacological tooal together with advanced in vivo imaging he is examining
how the colonization of tumours by microglia serves to activate rather than suppress
tumour growth.
Charlotte Buckley
Dr Charlotte Buckley is a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to her current post she complete a PhD in Professor John Mullin's lab investigating the regulation of renin, within the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, in the control of blood pressure. Dr Buckley's background is in physics (MPhys, University of Durham) and she was awarded a BHF scholarship for physical scientists wishing to work in life sciences in order to undertake her Ph.D studies. Dr Buckley's research has focused on imaging the process of renin-containing granule formation and dynamics in specialised kidney cell; as well as development of a micro-endoscopic camera for in vivo imaging of luciferase-expressing cells. She is currently developing and managing a Selective Plane Illumination Microscope (SPIM) and using this optical technology to look at the physiological effects of renin-containing cell ablation within the kidney.
Dr Charlotte Buckley is a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to her current post she complete a PhD in Professor John Mullin's lab investigating the regulation of renin, within the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, in the control of blood pressure. Dr Buckley's background is in physics (MPhys, University of Durham) and she was awarded a BHF scholarship for physical scientists wishing to work in life sciences in order to undertake her Ph.D studies. Dr Buckley's research has focused on imaging the process of renin-containing granule formation and dynamics in specialised kidney cell; as well as development of a micro-endoscopic camera for in vivo imaging of luciferase-expressing cells. She is currently developing and managing a Selective Plane Illumination Microscope (SPIM) and using this optical technology to look at the physiological effects of renin-containing cell ablation within the kidney.
Neil Henderson
Professor Neil Henderson (MBChB,
FRCP) is a Wellcome Trust Senior
Research Fellow in Clinical Science, based in the MRC Centre for Inflammation
Research, University of Edinburgh and maintains his medical practice as a
Consultant Hepatologist. He was recently
appointed to the post of
Professor of Tissue Repair and Regeneration. Prior to his current position he held a
Wellcome Trust Clinician Specialist Scientist Fellowship.
The main research theme of Professor Henderson’s lab is the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive organ
fibrogenesis and the molecular pathways that are responsible for efficient wound
healing and healthy tissue regeneration following injury. His current research focuses on the
development of an intravital imaging approach to elucidate novel mechanisms of
organ fibrosis and repair. By understanding more about how organs scar, heal and
regenerate, Professor Henderson and his team hope to develop new treatments for
patients with fibrotic diseases.
Nathalie Rochefort
Dr Nathalie Rochefort is a Wellcome Trust and
Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the Centre for Integrative Physiology,
University of Edinburgh. She started her
research group at the University of Edinburgh in 2013 with the award of a
Chancellors Fellowship, she also holds a Marie Curie Career Integration
Grant. Prior to this Dr Rochefort was a
post-doctoral fell in the Konnerth lab, Institute of Neuroscience, Technical
University Munich.
Dr Rochefort is a sensory neuroscientist whose
goal is to understand how neuronal activity in the brain underlies our perceptions
and actions, and to understand the mechanisms underlying coordinated cortical
activity. Her research focuses on the
primary visual cortex, as a model system of cortical integration. By using two-photon calcium imaging combined
with electrophysiological recording in awake behaving mice, the aim of her work
is to determine how sensory experience durably modifies the activity of
cortical neuronal networks in the mouse primary visual cortex.
Kurt Anderson
Professor Kurt Anderson is a Group Leader at the
CRUK Beatson Institute and Professor of Cell Migration. He holds a position on the Advisory Board of
the Rockefeller University Bio-Imaging Centre and for the Radboud University
Nijmegen Medical Centre. In 2012 he was
awarded the Royal Microscopical Society Life Sciences Medial. Prior to his current position he was a
Facility Leader at the Max Planck Insitiute for Moleular Cell Biology and
Genetics, Germany.
The main goal of his research is to develop
fluorescence microscopy approaches to study the cellular and molecular dynamics
of metastasis both in vitro and in vivo in mouse models of cancer
including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, melanoma, and breast. Professor Anderson’s group were the first to demonstrate
the utility of fluorescence recovery after photo-bleaching in vivo to study the dynamics of the cell-adhesion molecule
eCadherin in tumor cell migration. His
current research involves using fluorescence lifetime imaging to study the activation
of the small GTPase Rho during mutant p53 driven invasion of pancreatic cancer
cell in order to evaluate the potential of therapeutic compounds.
Peter Friedl
Professor Peter Friedl holds the chair for
Microscopical Imaging of the Cell and is the Head of the Cell Dynamics
Laboratory at the St. Radboud Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands. He also holds a joint-appointment as the Head
of the Imaging Centre at the David H. Koch Centre, Department of Genitourinary
Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston Texas. Prior to this he was an Associate Professor
at the Department of Dermatology, Rudolf-Virchow Centre and Department of
Dermatology, Wurzburg, Germany.
After a decade of clinical work as a Dermatologist (1996-2006) he now focuses exclusively on basic and translational research.The main research interest of Professor Friedl is cancer development and immune defense; specifically the time-resolved visualization of cell-matrix interactions and dynamic cell patterning during tumor invasion and immune cell interactions with reference to integrins, surface proteases and cytoskeletal regulators. He uses both 3D extracellular matrix based cell culture models together with intravital imaging of tumor and immune cell migration using multiphoton microscopy. This approach has revealed how invading caner cells navigate through collagen-rich tissue by remodeling the extracellular matrix through the surface matrix metalloproteinase cleavage of collagen fibers. His work has provided insight into the serial dynamics of T cell scanning across antigen-presenting cells and the diversity of tumor invasion mechanisms and interaction with tumor stoma, as well as novel escape responses in tumor progression during targeted experimental therapy.
After a decade of clinical work as a Dermatologist (1996-2006) he now focuses exclusively on basic and translational research.The main research interest of Professor Friedl is cancer development and immune defense; specifically the time-resolved visualization of cell-matrix interactions and dynamic cell patterning during tumor invasion and immune cell interactions with reference to integrins, surface proteases and cytoskeletal regulators. He uses both 3D extracellular matrix based cell culture models together with intravital imaging of tumor and immune cell migration using multiphoton microscopy. This approach has revealed how invading caner cells navigate through collagen-rich tissue by remodeling the extracellular matrix through the surface matrix metalloproteinase cleavage of collagen fibers. His work has provided insight into the serial dynamics of T cell scanning across antigen-presenting cells and the diversity of tumor invasion mechanisms and interaction with tumor stoma, as well as novel escape responses in tumor progression during targeted experimental therapy.