Editor Profiles

Early development

Tristan Rodríguez is a Reader in Cell and Developmental Biology at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London. Tristan obtained his PhD from University College London. He then worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, studying the early stages of mouse development. In 2002, he was awarded a Lister Institute of Medicine fellowship to become an independent investigator at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre. In 2011, his lab moved to NHLI where their research is centred on understanding the mechanisms regulating cell fitness. Specifically, this work focuses on unravelling the cell-to-cell signalling and the cell-intrinsic mechanisms that ensure that suboptimal cells are eliminated during embryonic development. Additionally, the group also studies how these mechanisms become deregulated in the adult, for example during cancer and heart disease. 

Gametogenesis and fertilization

Dr Brett Nixon is a Professor of Biological Sciences.  He obtained his PhD at the University of Newcastle, before being appointed as an NIH post-doctoral research fellow at Emory University. He has since returned to the University of Newcastle where he currently serves as a Director of the Priority Research Centre for Reproductive Science. 
Dr Nixon’s research interests focus on understanding the mechanistic basis of male germ cell development. He has conducted research activity at the basic biology / clinical andrology interface, providing insights into how spermatozoa acquire the functional competence to engage in fertilization, and how this process becomes so dramatically disrupted in cases of male infertility. Through the study of model species as diverse as crocodiles, platypus and humans, his ongoing research has broad application for the diagnosis of sperm dysfunction, the design of novel therapeutic intervention strategies to alleviate the burden of male infertility, and assisted reproductive strategies for wildlife conservation.

Stem cell biology and cellular reprogramming

Dr. Xiuchun (Cindy) Tian is a professor of biotechnology at the University of Connecticut.  She obtained her MS and PhD from Cornell University in reproductive endocrinology. As a recipient of the National Research Service Award from the NIH she did her post-docs in developmental genetics and molecular embryology.

Dr. Tian’s current research interests are 1) nuclear reprogramming by somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning); 2) genetic engineering to improve production efficiency of domestic animals; 3) embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells; 4) epigenetics of pre-implantation embryos.  Dr. Tian has more than 100 primary publications in both premium journals such as Nature Genetics, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS, Stem Cells as well as specialty journals such as Cellular Reprogramming.  She has served as a Section Editor for BMC Developmental Biology since 2011.

Evolutionary Developmental Biology

After earning her medical doctorate in her native Paris, Brigitte Galliot began her professional career at Strasbourg University Hospital starting in 1982, first as an intern in Pediatrics and later in Biochemistry. At the same time, she undertook studies in Life Sciences that led to a second doctorate, in Molecular Biology, with a thesis on the architect genes involved in embryonic development. Starting in 1989, she worked in Heidelberg, Germany, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a project leader. Heidelberg is the place she became interested in Hydra, a curious organism found in local ponds, whose astonishing capacities for regeneration were discovered in the 18th century by the Geneva mathematician Abraham Trembley. In the lab of Chica Schaller, she identified the first Hox-like genes from cnidarians. She joined the University of Geneva in 1993, and since then her group focused on the evolution of the mechanisms leading to the reactivation of a developmental program after amputation, to de novo neurogenesis and to slow aging. She has been the Section Editor in BMC Developmental Biology since 2011.

Regeneration and repair

Enrique Amaya is The Healing Foundation Professor of Tissue Regeneration at the University of Manchester. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, when he first became interested in embryos and evolution. In 1992, Enrique completed his PhD studies at the University of California at San Francisco. The topic of his PhD work was the investigation of the signals, which pattern and induce the first tissues in the vertebrate embryo. After spending ten years at the University of Cambridge, Enrique moved his laboratory to the University of Manchester in 2005, where his lab is investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for tissue formation, repair and regeneration in amphibians and fish. It is hoped that these studies will help pave the way toward the development of novel therapies, which will enable humans to heal and regenerate tissues better.

Organogenesis and organoids

Dr. Jean-François Brunet, M.D., Ph.D. is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Biology of the École Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Paris, affiliated to CNRS and INSERM. He joined the Editorial Board of BMC Developmental Biology as Section Editor in 2010. 

Dr. Brunet completed a Ph.D. in immunology at the Centre for Immunology of Marseille-Luminy.  He then pursued a postdoctoral training in neuroscience at Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. 

Dr. Brunet’s research is focused on the embryonic development and evolution of the autonomic nervous system.