Dr Helen Dawe
Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation
About me:
I am a molecular cell biologist with interests in cell polarity, cell morphogenesis and the cytoskeleton. My research focuses on how eukaryotic flagella/cilia are built, and how this goes wrong in human inherited disease. I am particularly interested in the early stages of ciliogenesis: centrosome migration and docking at the cell surface, and how these go awry in Meckel-Gruber and Joubert syndromes. I am a member of the Cell Biology research group.
Interests:
Eukaryotic cilia and flagella are remarkably conserved, both at the structural and functional levels, from evolutionarily ancient unicellular eukaryotes to man and are adapted to carry out diverse roles. Almost every cell in the human body can form a cilium or flagellum, either motile or non-motile. Motile cilia move fluids past epithelial cell layers in multicellular organisms; however, non-motile primary cilia are the most common type of cilia in the body. The roles of primary cilia were unclear but the recent identification of many inherited disorders involving aberrant ciliary function, termed “ciliopathies”, has changed this and primary cilia are now known as sensory organelles, acting both as chemo- or mechanosensors and transducers of signals that regulate key developmental signalling pathways. My lab focuses on the severe ciliopathy Meckel Gruber syndrome. We use a combination of patient-derived cell lines, post-genomic technologies, classical cell biology and genetics to give insight into the molecular cell biology of the disease. We are currently studying the roles that two proteins, TMEM67 and TMEM216, play in organisation of the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons during cell migration.
Qualifications:
1999-2003 PhD Molecular Cell Biology, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University of London
1995-1999 BSc (Hons) Biochemistry with Industrial Experience, University of Manchester
Career:
2009-2021 Lecturer in Cell Biology, University of Exeter
2008-2009 University Research Lecturer, University of Oxford
2006-2009 Beit Memorial Fellow, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford
2003-2006 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Oxford
