Newcastle University

Research Interests

My major research interests fall within human and mammalian developmental genetics.

Some of my research projects seek to understand the molecular and cellular basis of abnormal development (developmental malformation). They include basic studies of a mouse mutant where the left-right axis is consistently reversed (in collaboration with my colleague Professor Judith Goodship) and investigations of the molecular basis of Cornelia de Lange syndrome, a disorder characterised by mental and growth retardation and developmental abnormalities of many organ systems.

My other projects are studies of developmental and differentiation processes in normal early human development. They include studies of gene expression in embryonic development and the derivation and characterisation of embryonic stem cells.

• Stojkovic M, Lako M, Stojkovic P, Stewart R, Przyborski S, Armstrong L, Evans J, Herbert M, Hyslop L, Ahmad S, Murdoch A, Strachan T. Derivation of human embryonic stem cells from day-8 blastocysts recovered after three-step in vitro culture. Stem Cells 2004, 22(5), 790-797.
• Ahmad S, Hyslop LA, Jahoda CA, Strachan T, Lako M, Figueiredo FC. From embryo to eye - Human embryonic stem cell markers OCT-4 and NANOG are localised to adult limbal epithelium. In: Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science: Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. 2004, Ft Lauderdale, Florida, USA: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
• Lindsay S, Scott M, Sarma S, Woods H, Crosier M, Lisgo S, Kerwin J, Strachan T, Robson SC. Human developmental gene expression: an important link between disorder and understanding. In: Journal of Medical Genetics: British Human Genetics Conference. 2004, York, UK: BMJ Group.
• Tonkin ET, Wang T-J, Lisgo S, Bamshad MJ, Strachan T. NIPBL, encoding a homolog of fungal Scc2-type sister chromatid cohesion proteins and fly Nipped-B, is mutated in Cornelia de Lange syndrome. Nature Genetics 2004,36 6 636-641.
• Issac A, Sarma S, Lindsay S, Strachan T, Robson SC. Stability of RNA in human embryos stored over long periods of time. In: Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation: 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation. 2004, Houston, Texas, USA: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Tonkin E, Smith M, Eichhorn P, Jones S, Imamwerdi B, Jackson M, Lindsay S, Carter N, Wang TJ, Ireland M, Burn J, Krantz I, Strachan T. A giant gone encoding a developmentally regulated novel member of the M28 peptidase family is severed by a Cornelia de Lange-associated translocation breakpoint at 3q26.3. In: American Journal of Human Genetics: Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA: Cell Press.
• Gillis LA, Strachan T, Tonkin E, Kaur M, Bottani A, Li HH, Jackson LG, Devoto M, Krantz ID. Genome-wide linkage analysis identifies five candidate gene regions in the Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS). In: American Journal of Human Genetics: Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA: Cell Press.
• Otto EA, Schermer B, Obara T, O'Toole JF, Landau D, Goodship JA, Strachan T, Antignac C, Walz G, Drummond LA, Benzing T, Hildebrandt F. Inversin mutations cause nephronophthisis type 2, linking renal cystic disease to the function of primary cilia and left-right axis determination. In: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology: 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology. 2003, San Diego, California, USA: American Society of Nephrology.
• Otto E, Schermer B, Obara T, O'Toole JF, Landau D, Goodship JA, Strachan T, Antignac C, Walz G, Drummond IA, Benzing T, Hildebrandt F. Mutations in Inversin cause Nephronophthisis type 2, linking cystic kidney disease to the function of primary cilia and left-right axis determination. In: American Journal of Human Genetics: Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA: Cell Press.
• Braybrook C, Lisgo S, Doudney K, Henderson D, Marcano ACB, Strachan T, Patton MA, Villard L, Moore GE, Stanier P, Lindsay S. Craniofacial expression of human and murine TBX22 correlates with the cleft palate and ankyloglossia phenotype observed in CPx patients. Human Molecular Genetics 2002, 11(22), 2793-2804.
• Morgan D, Eley L, Sayer J, Strachan T, Yates LM, Craighead AS, Goodship JA. Expression analyses and interaction with the anaphase promoting complex protein Apc2 suggest a role for inversin in primary cilia and involvement in the cell cycle. Human Molecular Genetics 2002, 11(26), 3345-3350.
• Lynch SA, Wang Y, Strachan T, Burn J, Lindsay S. Autosomal dominant sacral agenesis: Currarino syndrome. Journal of Medical Genetics 2000, 37(8), 561-566.
• Hagan DM, Ross AJ, Strachan T, Lynch SA, Ruiz-Perez V, Wang YM, Scambler P. Mutation analysis and embryonic expression of the HLXB9 Currarino syndrome gene. American Journal of Human Genetics 2000, 66(5), 1504-1515.
• Hanley NA, Hagan DM, Clement-Jones M, Ball SG, Strachan T, Salas-Cortes L, McElreavey K, Lindsay S, Robson S, Bullen P, Ostrer H, Wilson DI. SRY, SOX9, and DAX1 expression patterns during human sex determination and gonadal development. Mechanisms of Development 2000, 91(1-2), 403-407.
• Clement-Jones M, Schiller S, Rao E, Blaschke RJ, Zuniga A, Zeller R, Robson SC, Binder G, Glass I, Strachan T, Lindsay S, Rappold GA. The short stature homeobox gene SHOX is involved in skeletal abnormalities in Turner syndrome. Human Molecular Genetics 2000, 9(5), 695-702.
• Ross AJ, Ruiz-Perez V, Wang Y, Hagan D-M, Scherer S, Lynch SA, Lindsay S, Custard E, Belloni E, Wilson DI, Wadey R, Goodman F, Orstavik KH, Monclair T, Robson S, Reardon W, Burn J, Scambler P, Strachan T. A homeobox gene, HLXB9, is the major locus for dominantly inherited sacral agenesis. Nature Genetics 1998. , 20(4), 358-361.
• T. Strachan, M. Abitbol, D. Davidson and J. S. Beckmann. A new dimension for the human genome project: Towards comprehensive expression maps. Nature Genetics 1997, 16, 126-132.