Dissecting the role of novel haematopoietic factors in development and disease

Blood is made up of different cell types with different functions, such as carrying oxygen (red blood cells), help with wound healing (platelets) and fighting infections (white blood cells). All these cells arise from Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that live in our bone marrow. They are generated during embryonic development, arising from the haemogenic endothelium (HE), a specialized subset of endothelial cells located in the floor of the main embryonic artery, the dorsal aorta. The mechanisms leading first to the emergence of HSC and then to the differentiation to all haematopoietic lineages (e.g. erythrocytes, macrophages, T-cells) are very well conserved in zebrafish. The student will use a combination of classical developmental biology, transgenesis and gene editing, together with (single cell) transcriptional profiling and computational tools to study the role of novel haematopoietic factors and understand how they shape haematopoiesis in embryonic development and in blood malignancies such as leukaemia. This is a collaboration with a bioinformatics lab and ample opportunity for training will be provided. A better understanding of how these factors interact to generate and maintain a healthy haematopoietic system in a whole organism is critical both to design new approaches to generating stem cells in vitro but also to help design effective interventions when haematopoiesis is perturbed in diseases such as leukaemias.

Applicants should have a strong background in haematopoietic or cardiovascular biology and good knowledge of bioinformatics applied to high throughput sequencing data. They should have a commitment to learn new wet lab and dry lab techniques and approaches to investigate haematopoietic and cardiovascular development; they should hold or realistically expect to obtain at least an Upper Second Class Honours Degree or equivalent in Biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics or a related subject.