Research groups

Eph receptor-ephrin mediated contact repulsion between a neuron and a fibroblast.

Regulation of cell migration by ephrin-mediated contact repulsion.

Eph receptors and ephrins are surface proteins that interact at cell-cell contact sites yet generally trigger repulsive responses between their respective cells. These cell repulsion events are key for developmental programs where cell movements must be strictly controlled such as neuronal pathfinding and neural crest cell migration.

Our work aims to understand how bi-directional signalling through Eph receptors and their ephrin ligands control the actin cytoskeleton and cell adhesion. We have focused our studies on understanding how initial adhesive interactions between Ephs and ephrins can be switched to repulsion and recently have identified a crucial role for Rac-regulated endocytosis of Eph-ephrin complexes in these events.