Dr Vincent Cunliffe
Senior Lecturer in Developmental Genetics
Room: D18d Firth Court
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 2389
Fax: +44 (0) 114 276 5413
email : v.t.cunliffe@sheffield.ac.uk
Research interests
Our research is focused primarily on understanding the roles of chromatin regulatory proteins in the development of the zebrafish Central Nervous System (CNS) and in diseases such as cancer. In addition, we are exploiting the technical advantages of the zebrafish embryo to investigate the functions of other genes previously implicated in human neurological disorders. A third area of interest is in developing novel cell culture materials that are capable of supporting the expansion and directed differentiation of neural stem cells.
Read more (link to the Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics)
Career history
- 2007 - present: Senior Lecturer
- 2002 - 2007: Lecturer
- 1997 - 2002: Lister Institute Research Fellow, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield
- 1994 - 1997: Group Leader in Molecular and Cell Biology, Therexsys Ltd, Keele, UK
- 1991 - 1994: Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Developmental Biology, National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK.
- 1990: Postdoctoral Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
- 1986 - 1990: PhD, Imperial Cancer Research Fund and University College, London.
- 1982 - 1986: BSc, University of Edinburgh.
Activities and distinctions
- Co-organizer, EMBO Practical Courses (1999, 2004, 2007)
- Invited peer-reviewed review: Current Opinion in Development and Genetics (2008)
Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Medical Research Council (MRC)
- Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALS)
- The Spastic Paraplegia Foundation (SPF)
- Wellcome Trust
- Yorkshire Cancer Research
Recent publications
Lightman EG, Harrison MR, Cunliffe VT.
Opposing actions of histone deacetylase 1 and Notch signalling restrict expression of erm and fgf20a to hindbrain rhombomere centres during zebrafish neurogenesis.
Int J Dev Biol. 2011;55(6):597-602.
Harrison MR, Georgiou AS, Spaink HP, Cunliffe VT.
The epigenetic regulator Histone Deacetylase 1 promotes transcription of a core neurogenic programme in zebrafish embryos.
BMC Genomics. 2011 Jan 12;12(1):24. [Epub ahead of print]PMID: 21226904
Butler R, Wood JD, Landers JA, Cunliffe VT.
Genetic and chemical modulation of spastin-dependent axon outgrowth in zebrafish embryos indicates a role for impaired microtubule dynamics in hereditary spastic paraplegia.
Dis Model Mech. 2010 Sep 9. [Epub ahead of print]
Butler R, Wood JD, Landers JA, Cunliffe VT.
Genetic and chemical modulation of spastin-dependent axon outgrowth in zebrafish embryos indicates a role for impaired microtubule dynamics in hereditary spastic paraplegia.
Dis Model Mech. 2010 Sep 9. [Epub ahead of print]
Walker RA, Cunliffe VT, Whittle JD, Steele DA, Short RD.
Submillimeter-scale surface gradients of immobilized protein ligands.
Langmuir. 2009 Apr 21;25(8):4243-6.
Wood JD, Bonath F, Kumar S, Ross CA, Cunliffe VT.
Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 and neuregulin 1 are required for the specification of oligodendrocytes and neurones in the zebrafish brain.
Hum Mol Genet. 2009 Feb 1;18(3):391-404.
Cunliffe VT.
Eloquent silence: developmental functions of Class I histone deacetylases.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2008 Oct;18(5):404-10. Review.
Prajsnar TK, Cunliffe VT, Foster SJ, Renshaw SA.
A novel vertebrate model of Staphylococcus aureus infection reveals phagocyte-dependent resistance of zebrafish to non-host specialized pathogens.
Cell Microbiol. 2008 Nov;10(11):2312-25.
Bryant RJ, Winder SJ, Cross SS, Hamdy FC, Cunliffe VT.
The Polycomb Group protein EZH2 regulates actin polymerization in human prostate cancer cells.
Prostate. 2008 Feb 15;68(3):255-63.