David Turner

My research aims to uncover how cells integrate signals from their environment to determine their fate during early mammalian development.

 

To answer these questions, I use mouse embryonic stem cells as a model system, growing them in 2D (monolayer) or as 3D gastruloids. Gastruloids are an incredibly useful model system to study the mechanisms of early embryonic development, as they reproducibly undergo many of the same processes and early patterning events as the early embryo, are highly tractable, and critically allow us to study early mammalian development without using animal models.

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In 2017, I was awarded a David Sainsbury NC3Rs fellowship to use the gastruloid model system to study Left-Right Asymmetry in mammalian development. I then joined the University of Liverpool in 2019 to take up a Tenure-Track Fellowship in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease where I am continuing my work in understanding the processes governing cell fate decisions in early mammalian development.