CACHAT, Elise - University of Edinburgh - School of Biological Sciences

个人简介

2016 Lecturer in Synthetic Biology / Biotechnology 2009-2016 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, School of Biomedical Sciences 2006-2009 Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh 2005 Research Assistant, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh 2001-2005 PhD Microbiology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh 2001 MPhil Organic Chemistry, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh 1999-2000 Research Assistant, Aventis Cropscience, Lyon, France

研究领域

Mammalian synthetic biology, synthetic morphology & patterning We engineer mammalian cells to self-organize into specific structures and patterns, a technology that will both teach us about natural patterning and will also lay the foundations for advanced tissue engineering. We built a pattern generator where cells were engineered with different adhesion molecules. These cells self-organize in 2-D and 3-D based on phase separation and differential adhesion, and the resulting cell arrangements resemble animal coat patterns (Cachat et al. 2016, Sci. Rep. 6: 20664). By inducing specific morphogenetic circuits from a library of synthetic genetic modules we built previously (Cachat et al. 2014, J. Biol. Eng. 8: 26), we can add complexity to this pattern. For example, we can target one of the population to selectively undergo apoptosis, or target boundary cells to undergo specific differentiation. Although differential adhesion is a mechanism naturally occurring in developing tissues, it has not been identified as a pattern-generating mechanism in animals and as such constitutes a truly synthetic road to patterning. Another genetic machine we are building uses an architecture developed in theoretical terms in the 1950s by Alan Turing: the reaction-diffusion mechanism. Depending on system parameters, engineered cells should produce spots, stripes, swirls or travelling waves of activation. As opposed to the above patterning mechanism, the reaction-diffusion mechanism has been shown to drive patterning in developing embryos, but has not yet been reproduced synthetically. Together, these approaches will create simple systems to test existing theories of morphogenesis and patterning derived from the study of animal development but difficult to test in complex embryos. These approaches will also create synthetic platforms for use in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and for the development of clinically-useful structures outside the normal developmental repertoire (Davies & Cachat 2016, Biochem. Soc. Trans. 44, 696-701).

近期论文

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Cachat E., W. Liu, K. Martin, X. Yuan, H. Yin, P. Hohenstein and J.A. Davies. 2- and 3-dimensional synthetic large-scale de novo patterning by mammalian cells through phase separation. 2016. Scientific Reports 6:20664 Davies J.A. and E. Cachat. Synthetic biology meets tissue engineering. 2016. Biochemical Society Transactions. 44, 696-701. Cachat E., W. Liu, P. Hohenstein and J.A. Davies. A library of mammalian effector modules for synthetic morphology. 2014. Journal of Biological Engineering 8:26 Cachat E., K. Martin and J.A. Davies. Synthetic biology approaches for regenerative medicine. 2014. Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine. Cachat E. and J.A. Davies. Application of synthetic biology to regenerative medicine. 2011. Journal of Bioengineering and Biomedical Science. S2:003.