Understanding the role of intracellular trafficking in in vivo cell polarisation during tissue patterning using state-of-the-art imaging and gene mani

Cell polarity is a fundamental cellular property that determines the form and function of the organs and tissues in our bodies. While well-studied in single cells, a major frontier in cell and developmental biology is to understand how cell polarity can be established and coordinated within a tissue. Planar polarity is an example of such coordination, whereby cells in an epithelium all acquire the same orientation. A major outstanding question is how cellular processes such as vesicular trafficking and endocytosis are used in vivo to enable coordinated cell polarisation.
The project is a collaboration between the Strutt lab, which has extensive experience in studying planar polarity mechanisms using the model organism Drosophila, and the Smythe and Baron labs that specialise in understanding the role of endocytosis in cell signalling. The overall aim is to understand the roles and regulation of endocytic trafficking in establishment of planar polarity in developing epithelia. Leading-edge genetic manipulation techniques will be used to fluorescently tag endocytic proteins of interest and also to manipulate their function in real time. These tools will then be combined with multicolour live-imaging to provide novel insights in the interplay of cell polarisation and endocytic trafficking events in a living organism.