Name: Partner 2: King’s College of London (United Kingdom)

Address: King's College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

Link: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/

Summary: A recognized public interest foundation since 1921, Institut Curie has worked to fulfil its three missions since its founding by Marie Curie, namely research, care and the preservation and transfer of knowledge. This multi-disciplinary approach, part of the bylaws of the foundation, is the DNA of Institut Curie.

Signaling and Neural Crest Development: Prof. Karen Liu, who has had an independent group at KCL (Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology), is a principle contributing researcher from Partner 2.

Professor Liu’s lab focuses on the development of the neural crest cell population. Undifferentiated neural crest cells undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transformations (EMT), migrate from the neural tube, and populate distant destinations. These cells display incredible plasticity, giving rise to diverse tissues ranging from bone and cartilage to adipocytes and neurons. Persistence of this multipotent population into adults may reflect the important contributions of the neural crest lineage to development, homeostasis and repair of vertebrate organs.

Their research makes use of multiple animal models, including frog, mouse, chick and humans. They also bring together biology and chemistry, designing new tools to study development and differentiation over time. Current projects include work on mammalian neural crest stem cells, migratory neural crest, contributions of the neural crest to head structures, and human craniofacial anomalies.

Prof. Liu’s research group will be hosting the young researcher ESR4.

Click here for research team details