Regular biography
Daniel St Johnston is a Principal Research Fellow at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, within the School of Biological Sciences. His research focuses on epithelia, apical-basal polarity, cytoskeletal organisation, polarity kinases, and polarised secretion. He uses Drosophila and intestinal organoids as model systems to investigate the factors that mark different sides of epithelial cells and how these organise internal cell architecture. His work incorporates techniques such as super-resolution imaging, live imaging, BioID, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, and clonal analysis.
Scholar-generated biography
Daniel St Johnston is a cell biologist whose research focuses on the mechanisms underlying cellular polarity and RNA localization during development. His work explores how genetic pathways, such as the gurken-torpedo signaling system, establish body axes in Drosophila embryos. He investigates the role of RNA-binding proteins, including Staufen and eIF4AIII, in mRNA localization and translation. His studies also examine the molecular basis of epithelial polarity and the function of PAR proteins in cell organization. By combining genetic screens and live imaging, St Johnston elucidates the dynamic processes that govern cell and tissue architecture during development.