Valerie Wilson | The University of Edinburgh

Professor of Early Embryo Development

Centre for Regenerative Medicine
Institute for Regeneration and Repair

Tel: 0131 651 9500
Email: v.wilson@ed.ac.uk

Street: Centre for Regenerative Medicine
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh BioQuarter
5 Little France Drive
City: Edinburgh
Post code: EH16 4UU

Biography

Background

Val studied for her PhD in Dr Martin Evans' lab in Cambridge from 1987-1991 on ES cell genetic manipulation and transgenesis. She then joined Rosa Beddington's lab to work on postimplantation mouse embryos, first in the Centre for Genome Research, Edinburgh from 1991-1992 and then in the National Institute for Medical Research from 1992-1996, Mill Hill, London. During this time she investigated the role of T(brachyury) in mouse anteroposterior axial elongation, using chimeras created by combining mutant ES cell lines and wild type blastocysts. She moved to Edinburgh in 1996 to set up her own lab to try and understand more fully the mechanisms of axis elongation, first as an MRC Career Development Fellow in the Molecular Medicine Centre, then at the Institute for Stem Cell Research, and most recently in the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, after obtaining a university position.

Teaching & PhD supervision

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Aaron Alonso Torrens (PhD Student)

Emma Shaw (PhD Student)

Research

Research summary

Early embryo development

Val Wilson’s group studies the embryonic progenitors for the central nervous system, skeleton and muscles. This involves studying how and when they become a separate population of cells as well as how they are maintained and eventually eliminated.

Aims and areas of interest

Our primary objective is to understand how progenitors for the mouse anteroposterior axis are maintained over a relatively long period- about a third of mouse gestation- how they generate the axis, and how the length of the axis is regulated. In effect: we want to know why do mice have long tails (but not very, very long tails)?

Research activities

Dunbar science festival 10 Mar 2012

View activity on Research Explorer

Publications

A niche for axial stem cells - A cellular perspective in amniotes (9 pages) 1 Oct 2022 In: Developmental Biology, vol. 490, pp. 13-21
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2022.06.015
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Disruption of entire Cables2 locus leads to embryonic lethality by diminished Rps21 gene expression and enhanced p53 pathway 5 May 2021 In: eLIFE, vol. 10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50346
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Understanding axial progenitor biology in vivo and in vitro 15 Feb 2021 In: Development, vol. 148
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.180612
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (Published)
Diverse routes towards early somites in the mouse embryo (13 pages) 11 Jan 2021 In: Developmental Cell, vol. 56, pp. 141-153.e6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2020.11.013
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
A Tgfbr1/Snai1-dependent developmental module at the core of vertebrate axial elongation 29 Jun 2020 In: eLIFE, vol. 9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56615
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Coupled differentiation and division of embryonic stem cells inferred from clonal snapshots 25 Jun 2020 In: Physical Biology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/aba041
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)
Transcriptionally dynamic progenitor populations organised around a stable niche drive axial patterning (16 pages) 2 Jan 2019 In: Development, vol. 146, pp. 1-16
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.168161
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Human axial progenitors generate trunk neural crest cells in vitro (27 pages) 10 Aug 2018 In: eLIFE, vol. 7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.35786
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
A human iPSC line capable of differentiating into functional macrophages expressing ZsGreen: a tool for the study and in vivo tracking of therapeutic cells (9 pages) 5 Jul 2018 In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 373
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0219
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
BMP and FGF signaling interact to pattern mesoderm by controlling basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor activity (27 pages) 7 Jun 2018 In: eLIFE, vol. 7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.31018
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)
Mapping transcription factor occupancy using minimal numbers of cells in vitro and in vivo (15 pages) 1 Apr 2018 In: Genome Research, vol. 28, pp. 592-605
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.227124.117
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Distinct SoxB1 networks are required for naïve and primed pluripotency (28 pages) 19 Dec 2017 In: eLIFE, vol. 6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27746
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
A gene regulatory network balances neural and mesoderm specification during vertebrate trunk development (19 pages) 8 May 2017 In: Developmental Cell, vol. 41, pp. 243-261
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2017.04.002
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Somatic activating mutations in Pik3ca cause sporadic venous malformations in mice and humans 30 Mar 2016 In: Science Translational Medicine, vol. 8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aad9982
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Position-dependent plasticity of distinct progenitor types in the primitive streak (28 pages) 18 Jan 2016 In: eLIFE, vol. 5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10042
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Methods for Precisely Localised Transfer of Cells or DNA into Early Postimplantation Mouse Embryos 25 Dec 2015 In: Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3791/53295
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Intrinsic factors and the embryonic environment influence the formation of extragonadal teratomas during gestation 9 Oct 2015 In: BMC Developmental Biology, vol. 15
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12861-015-0084-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
In vitro generation of neuromesodermal progenitors reveals distinct roles for wnt signalling in the specification of spinal cord and paraxial mesoderm identity (15 pages) 26 Aug 2014 In: PLoS Biology, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001937
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Distinct Wnt-driven primitive streak-like populations reflect in vivo lineage precursors (13 pages) 15 Mar 2014 In: Development, vol. 141, pp. 1209-1221
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.101014
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
The role of pluripotency gene regulatory network components in mediating transitions between pluripotent cell states (8 pages) Oct 2013 In: Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, vol. 23, pp. 504-511
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2013.06.003
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)

View all 58 publications on Research Explorer

Funders

This article was published on 6 Dec, 2023