LAB MEMBERS
Dr Rahul Sharma (Research Fellow)
Doctoral Research
During my PhD, I was mainly involved in elucidating the functional role of various FGF ligands i.e. Tc-fgf1a, Tc-fgf1b (Sharma et al., 2013a), Tc-fgf8 and Tc-branchless (Sharma et al., 2015) and the receptor Tc-fgfr during embryogenesis of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. In addition, I also carefully studied the spatio-temporal expression profile of various marker genes through in-situ hybridization and immunolocalization techniques in WT embryos (Sharma et al., 2013b).
Current Research
My current research mainly focuses on understanding the early segmentation paradigm in more details in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum and also an evolutionary perspective of segmentation i.e. EVO-DEVO. In particular, I am deeply interested in investigating the gene regulatory network that underlies the Tribolium segmentation clock and also in understanding the regulatory behavior of the oscillating pair-rule genes (odd, eve, runt) within the segmentation clock of the beetle.
Contact details:
Email - fbsrsh[at]leeds.ac.uk
Peter Harrison (PhD student)
Current Research
Researching segmentation evo-devo in Tribolium castaneum and the potentially ancient origins of an arthropod segmentation clock.
Interests:
- Metazoan body plan evolution.
- Gene co-option and loss in homologous gene regulatory networks (character identity networks etc).
- Issues of deep homology.
Contact details:
Email - bsph[at]leeds.ac.uk
Twitter - @Harrison_Peter
Matthew Dooley (PhD student)
Current research
Contact details:
Email: bsmrd[at]leeds.ac.uk .
Dr Andrew Peel (Group Leader)
Lecturer in Animal Biology, School of Biology
BSc, Edinburgh; PhD 2006, Cambridge
Research Interests
Evolutionary Developmental Biology in Animals
I am interested in how animal evolution occurs at different levels of biological complexity; i.e. genetic, cellular, organismal and ecological. My research efforts to date have focused on understanding how diversity in animal body plans evolved. Animals obtain their species-specific morphological characteristics during embryonic development and/or metamorphosis. My work therefore compares the genetic and cellular mechanisms controlling embryogenesis in different animal species in order to identify the molecular changes that underpinned divergence in animal body plans during evolution.
Contact details:
Miall 8.22 | +44(0) 113 34 32822 |
Email - a.d.peel[at]leeds.ac.uk
Peel Laboratory
for Evolution & Development
