The lecture theater at the Crick.

Crick Lecture

David Wilkinson

The Francis Crick Institute

Crick Lectures

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Title: Borders and communities

David Wilkinson is a Senior Group Leader of the Neural Development Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute. He obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds, where he also carried out PhD studies on Dictyostelium development with David Hames.

From 1983 he carried out postdoctoral studies on sea urchin development in the laboratory of Martin Nemer at the Institute for Cancer Research in Fox Chase, Philadelphia. In 1986 he moved to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research as a postdoctoral fellow with Andrew McMahon, where he was appointed as a Group Leader in 1989. He was elected to EMBO and as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000. In 2015, he transferred to the Francis Crick Institute.

David's research interests focus on the mechanisms and roles of boundary formation during nervous system development, mainly using the zebrafish hindbrain as an amenable model. In current work, he is studying the mechanisms by which Eph receptor and ephrin signaling regulates cell segregation and border formation, and how boundary cells generate patterns of progenitor and neurogenic zones.