Abercrombie Meeting 2027

Timothy Saunders

University of Warwick

Timothy Saunders works at the interface of developmental biology and biophysics to decipher the mechanisms underlying organ formation. His interdisciplinary lab uses zebrafish, Drosophila and organoid systems in conjunction with advanced image analysis tools and biophysical modelling

Kate McDole

MRC LMB Cambridge

Kate McDole is a newly appointed Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. Her lab explores the morphogenesis of the early mouse embryo using a combination of advanced light-sheet microscopy, biology, computational methods and biophysics.

Klemens Rottner

TU Braunschweig, Germany

Klemens Rottner finished his PhD in 1999, already working on cell migration and Rho GTPase signalling with Vic Small in Salzburg/Austria, and in collaboration with Alan Hall. He then moved on supported by an EMBO longterm fellowship to the laboratory of Jürgen Wehland in Braunschweig/Germany before becoming Junior Group Leader in the same institute (former Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung/GBF). This period was followed (in 2010) by acceptance of a call for a professorship in Genetics to the University of Bonn/Germany. In 2014, he returned as Research Professor for Molecular Cell Biology to Technical University Braunschweig and with co-affiliation to his former institute, now called Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research. 
Klemens Rottner and his lab are studying the molecular mechanisms of actin remodelling in selected subcellular structures, such as lamellipodia versus filopodia or in actin structures during specific types of host-pathogen interaction. The cell biology performed in his lab is driven by a combination of advanced imaging approaches and genetics, e.g. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. He has also established close, collaborative links to experts worldwide in mouse biology/pathology, structural biology and electron tomography, as well as in vitro actin biochemistry and mathematical modelling.