Elizabeth Robertson

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Elizabeth "Liz" Jane Robertson (born July 3, 1957 in the United Kingdom ) is a British geneticist and developmental biologist .

Life

Elizabeth Robertson grew up partly in the jungles of Nigeria , where her father worked in an international research station. When Elizabeth was eight years old, the family returned to Oxford , where they could continue to watch the father experiment with gel electrophoresis .

Robertson earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in genetics with the later Nobel Prize winner Martin Evans at the University of Cambridge , where she also worked as a postdoc .

Her first professorship ( assistant professor , then associate professor ) for genetics and developmental biology led Robertson to Columbia University in New York City . Afterwards she was Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University in Boston , Massachusetts for twelve years from 1992 before moving to the Professorship of Developmental Biology at the University of Oxford .

Act

Together with student Allan Bradley, Robertson was able to smuggle embryonic stem cells (ES) into early embryos and show that these chimeric animals contain germ cells ( gametes , i.e. sperm or egg cells ) from the progeny of the embryonic stem cells. Animals that emerged from the union of these gametes then only carried ES genetic material. Since ES can be genetically manipulated relatively easily in cell culture , this technology can be used to create animals that carry almost any desired gene. In 1986 chimeric mice were created, and in 1989 reproductive animals were created which carried a desired mutation. As a result, countless “design” animals were created around the world, for example to simulate certain human diseases.

Robertson's group today uses the genetics of the mouse model organism to investigate cell interactions in mammalian development and immune recognition . Through targeted manipulations of embryonic stem cells, conditional mutations , knock-in alleles, cell markings and manipulations of the expression of signaling molecules are carried out under physiological conditions. Current research areas (as of 2014) are: signaling pathways of TGF-β in the alignment of the early embryonic body axis and in organogenesis , control of transcription in the formation of the mesoderm and the differentiation of the endoderm , embryonic control of cell development by the zinc finger protein - transcription factor Blimp1 and Relationships between sub-chains of chaperones and the main histocompatibility complex .

Awards (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b ACADEMIA EUROPAEA: NEW MEMBERS ELECTED AT PARIS WHO HAVE ACCEPTED MEMBERSHIP AS OF 8 March 2012 - ORDINARY AND FOREIGN. (PDF) In: ae-info.org. Academia Europaea , accessed December 22, 2014 .
  2. ↑ EMBO Membership Pocket Guide 2012. (PDF) In: www.embo.org. European Molecular Biology Organization , accessed December 21, 2014 .
  3. ^ Fellows of the Royal Society. In: royalsociety.org. Royal Society , accessed December 19, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Pearl Meister Greengard Prize - Recipients. In: greengardprize.rockefeller.edu. Rockefeller University , accessed December 19, 2014 .
  5. ^ Anne Blank: Elizabeth Robertson Awarded Edwin G. Conklin Medal. (PDF; 24 kB) In: www.sdbonline.org. Society for Developmental Biology , accessed December 21, 2014 .
  6. ^ Academy of Europe: Robertson Elizabeth. In: www.ae-info.org. Academia Europaea , accessed December 19, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Robertson, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robertson, Elizabeth Jane; Robertson, Elizabeth J .; Robertson, Liz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geneticist and developmental biology
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH United Kingdom