PhD studentship in the Tapon lab, at the Francis Crick Institute

Nic Tapon’s lab at the Francis Crick Institute is looking for a motivated developmental biologist to join our lab at the Francis Crick Institute as a PhD student in September 2027.

How do cells in a developing organism stop growing and dividing when the correct body size and shape has been reached? How is tissue size maintained in an adult organism?

These fundamental biological questions have clear implications for cancer, where cells lose the ability to respond to tissue size boundaries, and for regenerative medicine, where the proliferative potential of quiescent cells must be unleashed in a controlled manner.

Our goal is to unravel how a diverse set of cues acting at the local, tissue autonomous level (e.g. mechanical forces, tissue architecture, developmental signalling pathways) are integrated with systemic signals (e.g. nutrient availability, hormones) to determine final animal size. We also want to understand how different body sizes have evolved by comparing growth regulation across species.

We use a multidisciplinary set of approaches, including Drosophila (fruit fly) and mouse genetics, quantitative in vivo imaging, biophysics, mathematical modelling, biochemistry, proteomics as well as structural biology.

Follow the link below for further details of the project and application process.