The lecture theater at the Crick.

Crick Lecture

Axel Behrens

Adult Stem Cell Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute

Crick Lectures

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Title: Of Mice and Men

(and pancreatic cancer)

Axel has a long-standing interest in cell signalling pathways that control cell fate. Axel began his scientific career working with Erwin Wagner at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria. During his PhD and subsequent postdoctoral work in Switzerland with Adriano Aguzzi, he developed animal models of cancer and neurodegeneration.

Building on this expertise in mouse models of human diseases, Axel set up his laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2001 (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and has since focused the scope of investigation on the function of stem cells in tissue homeostasis and cancer and, more recently, in diabetes. He is currently group leader of the Adult Stem Cell Laboratory at the Crick, which studies how stem cells regenerate to repair the body and how faulty stem cells can lead to cancer.