dynamics Research summary

I have very broad interests in applying physical science techniques (mathematics, physics, statistics) to biological and medical problems, finding challenges in dynamic phenomena the most fun to work on, either developing models of mechanism, or analysing data to demonstrate or discover mechanisms. This can be at a range of scales, from the molecular, eg a signalling mechanism, to the cellular, such as the mechanics of cell division. I use a variety of data types, 3+1D fluorescence data, omics data, biochemical data ..... with a variety of techniques from mathematics and statistics, including dynamical systems, graph theory, stochastic modelling and the highly flexible range of Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques.
Research projects include/have included/hoped for- in cell biology: actin dynamics, microtubule dynamics, kinetochore oscillations (current project); in immunology: T cell and NK cell signalling; high dimensional omics data analysis: inferring gene regulatory networks by integrating transcriptome, proteome and bioinformatics data; in fluorescence data analysis: analysis of single particle tracking data, perturbation methods (Photoactivatable GFP, FRAP); in synthetic biology: improving photosynthesis (current project MAGIC); in Bioenergy: regulational aspects and design.

 

> Personal page is here and my faculty page is here

 

swivLATEST: kinetochores swivel

Collaboration with Andrew McAinsh and Chris Smith on a new conformational degree of freedom.
>> Smith C., McAinsh A.D. and Burroughs N.J. eLife 2016 5:e16159 | [OA]

super Tracking kinetochore movement

Together with Andrew McAinsh we use reverse engineering techniques (MCMC) to fit models of kinetochore oscillations to individual sister pair trajectories.
>> Burroughs NJ, Harry EF, McAinsh AD. Elife. 2015 4:e09500 | [OA]

 

Smith et al. (2016) Human kinetochores are swivel joints that mediate microtubule attachments
eLife, 5:e16159.

Cheffings et al. (2016) Actomyosin Ring Formation and Tension Generation in Eukaryotic Cytokinesis.
Current Biology, 2016, 26; R719-R737.

Armond et al. (2015) Inferring the Forces Controlling Metaphase Kinetochore Oscillations by Reverse Engineering System Dynamics.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 11:e1004607.

Burroughs et al. (2015) Super-resolution kinetochore tracking reveals the mechanisms of human sister kinetochore directional switching.
eLife, 4:e09500.

Armond et al. (2015) Probing microtubule polymerisation state at single kinetochores during metaphase chromosome motion.
J Cell Sci, 128:3363-74.