Biography
Anna Philpott graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA degree in Natural Sciences in 1988 and a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology in 1991. She held post-doctoral fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Centre in 1992, moving to the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in 1993.
She returned to the University of Cambridge in 1998 to a Lectureship in the Department of Oncology, where she is currently Professor of Cancer and Developmental Biology.
Research
We aim to characterise mechanisms that control the ability of cells to respond to cell fate challenges, as well as explore mechanisms that co-ordinate cell cycling with stem cell maintenance and differentiation during development, homeostasis and disease. In particular, we have uncovered a conserved regulatory mechanism where cdk-dependent phosphorylation of multiple proneural proteins promotes maintenance of progenitor/stem status, while dephosphorylation drives differentiation.
Our future aims are three-fold: we will explore how distinct fate-specifying transcription factors induce different responses at different developmental stages at the embryo, tissue and single cell level; we will further characterise the molecular mechanisms that link cell cycling and differentiation: We will also investigate perturbation of the balance between stem-ness/progenitor maintenance and differentiation that is a frequent hallmark of multiple cancers, focussing on molecular regulation of proliferation and differentiation in neuroblastoma, with the aim of developing new therapeutic strategies.
Publications
- Phospho-regulation of ATOH1 Is Required for Plasticity of Secretory Progenitors and Tissue Regeneration. Tomic G, Morrissey E, Kozar S, Ben-Moshe S, Hoyle A, Azzarelli R, Kemp R, Chilamakuri CSR, Itzkovitz S, *Philpott A, *Winton DJ. (2018). Cell Stem Cell. Sep 6;23(3):436-443 *Joint corresponding authors.
- The developmental ontogeny of neurological cancers: a cellular and molecular framework. Azzarelli R, Simons B, Philpott A. (2018). Development, 145,145(10).
- Defining lineage potential and fate behavior of precursors during pancreas development. Sznurkowska MK, Hannezo E, Rulands S, Nestorowa S, Hindley CJ, Azzarelli R, Nichols J, Göttgens B, Huch M,Philpott A*, Simons B*. (2018) Developmental Cell. Aug 6;46(3):360-375. * Joint corresponding authors.
- Neurogenin3 phosphorylation controls pancreatic endocrine differentiation and maintenance of β-cell function. Azzarelli R, Hurley C, Sznurkowska M, Gamper I, Ali F, McCracken L, Hindley C, McDuff F, Hardwick L, Jones2 K, Kemp R, Simons B, Huch M, Evan G, Winton D, Philpott A. (2017). Developmental Cell 41: 274-286.
- Ascl1 phospho-status regulates neuronal differentiation in a Xenopus developmental model of neuroblastoma. Wylie LA, Hardwick LJA, Papkovskaia TD, Thiele CJ, Philpott A (2015). Disease Model Mech. 8:429-41.
- The phosphorylation status of Ascl1 is a key determinant of neuronal differentiation and maturation in vivo and in vitro. Ali FR, Cheng K, Kirwan P, Metcalfe S, Livesey FJ, Barker RA, Philpott A (2014). Development. 141, 2216-24.