developmental and stem cell biologists
Robert Knight studied molecular evolution during his PhD at Reading, principally working with the cephalochordate amphioxus. He became fascinated with the evolution of the vertebrate head and chose to investigate craniofacial development with Tom Schilling at the University of California, Irvine. This started his long journey using the zebrafish to investigate the molecular and cellular underpinnings of tissue formation, leading him to Sheffield to study muscle development with Henry Roehl and Phil Ingham and then to King's College London, where he established himself as an independent investigator through a BBSRC David Philips Fellowship in 2007. The goal of his research is to understand how muscle formation and regeneration is regulated, with a focus on determining how cell behaviour is related to signalling and epigenetic programs. Using advanced imaging techniques with molecular profiling the goal is to create models for describing how resident muscle stem cells are regulated and determine how these are affected in ageing and disease.
