Home| Professor in Skin Biology |
Contact details:
| Tel: | +44 20 7882 7165 |
| Fax: | +44 20 7882 7172 |
| Email: | c.r.byrne@qmul.ac.uk |
| Address: |
Centre for Cutaneous Research, |
Biography
PhD 1991 in Microbial Genetics,
Postdoctoral position, University of Chicago 1990-1995
Academic positions 1995-2003, University of Manchester; 2003 -present, ICMS QMUL
Research Activity
Skin barrier prevents desiccation, microbial assault and toxicity at the organism-environment interface and resides in both the epidermal stratum corneum and the underlying adhesion complexes. Skin barrier also protects against ultraviolet radiation. My group is interested in the regulation of keratinocyte differentiation and skin barrier formation during fetal development, and the role and regulation of specific classes of skin barrier proteins (LCE proteins) that are differentially expressed and responsive to ultraviolet B. The group has lately focussed on the PI-3kinase-AKT pathway which we propose pleiotropically regulates late terminal differentiation and barrier formation. We show that this pathway is a target of environmental influences such as viral infection and ultraviolet radiation causing barrier compromise. AKT kinases are also differentially altered during skin carcinogenesis and with clinical collaborators we are investigating the role this pathway plays in skin tumour progression.
Key Publications
. Jackson, B, Brown, S. J., Avilion, A.A.,. O’Shaughnessy, R.F.L., Akinduro, O., Sully, K., Murphy, M., Cleary,M.L, .Byrne, C. TALE homeodomain proteins regulate site-specific terminal differentiation, LCE genes and epidermal barrier (2011) J. Cell Sci. 124, 1681-1690.
. Byrne C, Avilion AA, O'Shaughnessy RF, Welti JC, Hardman MJ. (2010) Whole-mount assays for gene induction and barrier formation in the developing epidermis. Methods Mol Biol. 585:271-86.
. O'Shaughnessy, R.F.L., Welti, J.C., Sully, K. and Byrne, C. (2009) Akt-dependent Pp2a activity is required for epidermal barrier formation during late embryonic development. Development 136: 3423-3431.
. O'Shaughnessy R.F.L, Akgul B., Storey A., Pfister H., Harwood C. and Byrne C. (2007) . Cutaneous human papilloma virus early genes downregulate Akt1 while Akt2 upregulation associates with tumourigenesis. Cancer Res., 67:17
. O'Shaughnessy, R.F.L., Welti, J.C., Cooke, J.C., Avilion,, A.A. Monks, B., . Birnbaum, M.J. and Byrne, C. (2007). AKT-dependent HspB1 (Hsp27) activity in epidermal differentiation. J. Biol Chem. 282:17297-17305.
. Brown, S.J., Tilli, C.M.L.J., Jackson, B., Avilion, A.A., MacLeod, M.C., Maltais, L.J. Lovering, R.C. and Byrne, C. (2007) Rodent Lce gene clusters; new nomenclature, gene organisation and divergence of human and rodent genes J. Invest. Dermatol. 127(7):1782-6.
. Hardman, M.J., Liu, K., Avilion, A.A., Merritt, A., Brennan, K., Garrod, D.R. and Byrne, C. (2005) Desmosomal cadherin misexpression alters bcatenin stability and epidermal differentiation. Mol. Cell Biol. 25(3): 969-978.
. Jackson, B., Tilli, C.M.L.J. , Hardman, M.J., Avilion, A. A., MacLeod, M.C., Ashcroft, G.S and Byrne, C . (2005) LCE family in differentiating epithelia - response to calcium and ultraviolet irradiation. J. Invest. Dermatol. 124(5):1062-70.
. Marshall , D., Hardman, M.J., Nield, K and Byrne, C. (2001) Differentially-expressed, late constituents of the epidermal cornified envelope. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:13031-13036.
. Marshall , D., Hardman, M.J. and Byrne, C . (2000) SPRR1 gene induction and barrier formation occur as co-ordinated moving fronts in terminally differentiating epithelia. J. Invest. Dermatol. 114: 967-975.
. Hardman, M.J., Moore L, Ferguson MW and Byrne C . (1999) Barrier formation in the human fetus is patterned. J Invest Dermatol. 1999 Dec;113(6):1106-13.
. Hardman, M.J., Sisi, P., Banbury, D.N. and Byrne, C. (1998) Patterned acquisition of skin barrier function during development. Development. 125, 1541-1552.
