Dr Jean Marie Delalande, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Centre: Immunobiology
Email: j.m.delalande@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 2394
Website: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=PHLzkpEAAAAJ&hl=en
Profile
I did my PhD at the University of Rennes I (France) where I studied myogenic bHLH transcription factors, a group of genes acting as master transcriptional regulators of muscular development. I then took up post-doctoral positions at the Royal Free Hospital (UK) with Prof. Geoffrey Goldspink, at the Institute of Child Health (UK) with Dr. Alan Burns and at Emory University (USA) with Dr. Iain Shepherd. I also held a research-associate position at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in salt Lake City (USA).
I joined Queen Mary University London (UK) as a Lecturer in 2014.
Summary
We all spend the first 40 minutes of our life as a single cell. The subsequent generation of a complex multicellular organism from this single cell is one of the most fascinating processes in biology. My research interest has been to study the harmonious interplay of signalling ensuring the embryo's peripheral nervous system develops normally. In particular, I have been studying the development of the enteric nervous system (ENS), which controls and regulates gut motility. My research focuses on the behaviour of neural crest cells (the cells which build up the ENS): how they migrate, connect and interact with other cell types in the embryonic gut. Studies of ENS development are of clinical significance since ENS defects result in commonly occurring gut disorders (including Hirschsprung disease, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and other motility defects) for which new therapies are needed.