Independent Research Fellows Recruitment Event 2009

Highlights:

1. The chance to be part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary department (Equal first for “world-leading” output among broad-spectrum Bioscience Departments in the last RAE) Superb research facilities including the innovative Technology Facility, housing more than £8m of state-of-the-art equipment in key technologies visit http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/biol/tf/

2. Opportunities to develop multidisciplinary interactions with colleagues across the biological spectrum, and with other departments with which we have strong links, such as Chemistry, Environment, Mathematics and the Hull York Medical School Mentorship and the opportunity to develop skills and experience of value in academia, industry and beyond A supportive environment. The Department’s values of collegiality, openness and flexibility benefit all its researchers and have just gained us a silver Athena Swan award for our support of women in science

3. An attractive campus environment 2 km from the centre of one of the most beautiful cities in Britain

4. For further information please visit:
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/biol/research/rfrecruit.htm

Post-doctoral fellowship in “Developmental origin of adipocytes in the neural crest”

Highlights:

1. Obesity has became a major health problem in development countries. The development of fat cells, or adipogenesis, consists in the generation of adipocyte precursors (preadipocytes) from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), followed by terminal differentiation of these preadipocytes in lipid-packed mature adipocytes. While the events controlling preadipocyte differentiation have been largely explored in recent years, surprisingly little is known about the early steps of adipogenesis and the developmental origin of adipose tissues.

2. We have recently provided new information about the origin of adipocytes by demonstrating that, during normal development, a subset of adipocytes in the cranial region of the body is generated by neural crest cells rather than by esodermal progenitors, classically thought to be at the origin of this lineage.

3. Using in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro complementary approaches, we are now interested in understanding whether the differential origin of cranial versus truncal adipocytes also reflect functional differences and site-specific regulations, which could have strong metabolic implications.

4. We are also interested in understanding the molecular pathways underlying neural crest cells induction and differentiation, and in particular how and when the adipocytic lineage segregates in neural crest-derived cells.