Jenny Gallop

Research Interests

Jenny is interested in the intersection of membranes and the actin cytoskeleton and uses the Xenopus embryo as a developmental and biochemical model for investigations in this area. She has recently worked on establishing an in vitro reconstitution system using supported lipid bilayers and Xenopus egg extracts where actin structures resembling filopodia rise up from the surface of the membrane, in collaboration with Kwonmoo Lee, a graduate student in the lab.
dancing filopodia
Science paper

She is interested in a range of ways in which membranes influence the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and is investigating the role of actin regulators in vivo in Xenopus embryos during gastrulation and also setting up new in vitro reconstitution systems. Jenny will start her own group at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, September 2011.
new lab website

Career

2011 - Group Leader, Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK.
2006-2011 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Kirschner Lab, Harvard Medical School
2005-2006 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
2001-2005 Pre-doctoral Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
1997-2001 Masters degree in Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK