Four Research Associate positions: Understanding self-organised tissue patterning across scales

Four Research Associate positions are available at the University of Sheffield, to join an interdisciplinary team working on the project ‘Understanding self-organised tissue patterning across scales‘ funded as part of the EPSRC/Wellcome Trust ‘Building Collaboration at the Physics of Life Interface’ initiative.

There are two theory positions based primarily in the group of Dr Alexander Fletcher (School of Mathematics and Statistics), one experimental position in cell and developmental biology based primarily in the lab of Prof. David Strutt (School of Biosciences), and one experimental position in biophysics based primarily in the labs of Prof. Ashley Cadby (Department of Physics and Astronomy) and Prof. Strutt.

The overarching objective of the project is to obtain a quantitative understanding of self-organised in vivo tissue patterning from molecular to tissue scales. It will use the core planar polarity pathway in the developing wing of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as an experimentally tractable model for multiscale self-organised tissue patterning. The approach will exploit cutting-edge biophysical approaches, combining quantitative light microscopy, genetic and physical manipulations, and computational multiscale modelling approaches. Understanding the principles guiding the establishment, maintenance, and remodelling of self-organised tissue patterns is a formidable challenge, requiring integration of physical and biological methods and expertise.

Informal enquiries may be directed to Dr Fletcher (a.g.fletcher@sheffield.ac.uk), Prof. Strutt (d.strutt@sheffield.ac.uk) or Prof. Cadby (a.cadby@sheffield.ac.uk). Formal applications should be made directly to the University of Sheffield (http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs, Job Refs: UOS031828, UOS031829, UOS031870, UOS031868). Application deadlines are 4th March 2022 for the theory positions and 9th March 2022 for the experimental positions. All positions are fixed-term, with a start date of 1st April 2022 and an end date of 31st March 2025.

Recent relevant publications:

• Tan et al (2021). QuantifyPolarity, a new tool-kit for measuring planar polarized protein distributions and cell properties in developing tissues. Development 148:dev198952.
• Fisher et al (2019). Experimental and theoretical evidence for bidirectional signalling via core planar polarity protein complexes in Drosophila. iScience. 17:49-66.
• Kursawe et al (2018). Approximate Bayesian computation reveals the importance of repeated measurements for parameterising cell-based models of growing tissues. J Theor Biol. 443:66-81.
• Ressurreição et al (2018). Rapid disruption of Dishevelled activity uncovers an intercellular role in maintenance of Prickle in core planar polarity protein complexes. Cell Rep 25:1415-1424.
• Barnett et al (2017). A novel application of non-destructive readout technology to localisation microscopy. Sci Rep 7:42313.
• Warrington et al (2017) A dual function for Prickle in regulating Frizzled stability during feedback-dependent amplification of planar polarity. Curr Biol 27:2784-2797.
• Strutt et al (2016). Robust asymmetric localization of planar polarity proteins is associated with organization into signalosome-like domains of variable stoichiometry. Cell Rep 17:2660-2671.