Module 10: Database of Adult Stem Cell Transcription

 Module Leaders Professor Doug Hilton

Dr Christine Wells
 Host Organisations Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

Griffith University

Module description

This module provides a key collaborative platform for Australian researchers working in mouse or human stem cell biology. It is a modular proposal which aims to support the warehousing and analysis of gene-expression data and various modules aimed at defining specific aspects of gene expression such as alternate splicing, miRNA regulation and alternate promoter usage. These databases will be supported by the ongoing development of secure, web-based, biologically-intuitive interfaces.

Aims

  1. Produce series of modular mySQL databases to house gene expression of:
    • mouse haemopoesis
    • adult stem cells from humans in health and disease
  2. Develop secure, web enabled, cross platform tools that allow biologists to intuitively interrogate the database using sophisticated underlying bioinformatic and statistical methods.
  3. Meet regularly to build collaborative approaches to data analysis

    Module Leader biographies

    Professor Doug Hilton undertook his PhD at WEHI, working with Professors Don Metcalf and Nick Nicola, to purify and patent the LIF protein.

    Professor Hilton went on to complete a post-doc at the Whitehead Institute at MIT on how red blood cell surface receptors recognise erythropoietin, and upon returning to WEHI discovered the suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS) protein family. He has recently been using large-scale genomics to track down the genes that regulate blood cell formation. Professor Hilton is the Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and head of the Division of Molecular Medicine.


    Dr Christine Wells holds an NHMRC Career Development Award study cell differentiation and activation using genome biology. She established a laboratory at Griffith University in 2005 to investigate transcriptional complexity in macrophages. The research tools that she has developed are now being applied to the study of Adult stem cell biology at the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, Griffith University.



    Contact details

    Professor Doug Hilton
     E-mail  hilton@wehi.edu.au
     Phone   +61 3 9345 2621
     Web  www.wehi.edu.au

    Dr Christine Wells

     E-mail  c.wells@griffith.edu.au
     Phone   +61 7 3735 7641
     Web  www.griffith.edu.au/science/eskitis-institute-cell-molecular-therapies

    Selected publications

    1. HILTON, D.J., Nicola, N.A. and Metcalf, D. Purification of a murine leukemia inhibitory factor from Krebs Ascites cells. Anal. Biochem. 173: 359-367, 1988 [110 Citations]
    2. Williams, R.L., HILTON, D.J., Pease, S., Willson, T.A., Stewart, C.L., Gearing, D.P., Wagner, E.F., Metcalf, D.,Nicola, N.A. and Gough, N.M. Myeloid leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) maintains the developmental potential of embryonic stem cells. Nature 336: 684-687, 1988 [856 Citations]
    3. HILTON, D.J., Hilton, A.A., Raicevic, A., Rakar, S., Harrison-Smith, M., Gough, N.M., Begley, C.G., Metcalf, D.,Nicola, N.A. and Willson, T.A. Cloning of a murine IL-11 receptor alpha chain; requirement of gp130 for high affinity binding and signal transduction. EMBO J. 13: 4765-75, 1994 [209 Citations]
    4. HILTON, D.J., Zhang, J-G., Metcalf, D., Alexander, W., Nicola, N.A. and Willson, T.A. Cloning and characterisation of a novel shared component of the interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 receptors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93: 497-501, 1996 [268 Citations]
    5. Starr, R., Willson, T.A., Viney, E.M., Murray, L.J.L., Rayner, J.R., Jenkins, B.J., Gonda, T.J., Alexander, W.S., Metcalf, D., Nicola, N.A. and HILTON, D.J. A family of cytokine-inducible inhibitors of signal transduction. Nature 387: 917-921, 1997 [1052 Citations]
    6. HILTON, D.J., Richardson, R.T., Alexander, W.S., Viney, E.M., Willson, T.A., Sprigg, N.S., Starr, R., Nicholson, S.E., Metcalf, D. and Nicola, N.A. Twenty proteins containing a c-terminal SOCS box comprise five structural classes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 114-119, 1998 [310 Citations]
    7. Alexander, W.S., Starr, R., Fenner, J.E., Scott, C.L., Handman, E., Sprigg, N.S., Corbin, J.E., Cornish, A.L., Darwiche, R., Owczarek, C.M., Kay, T.W.H., Nicola, N.A., Hertzog, P.J., Metcalf, D. and HILTON, D.J. SOCS1 is a critical regulator of interferon gamma signalling and prevents the potentially fatal neonatal actions of this cytokine. Cell 98: 597-608, 1999 [344 Citations]
    8. Metcalf, D., Greenhalgh, C.J., Viney, E., Willson, T., Nicola, N.A., HILTON, D.J., and Alexander, W.S. Gigantism in mice lacking suppressor of cytokine signaling-2. Nature 405:1069-1073, 2000 [204 Citations]
    9. Carpinelli MR*, HILTON DJ*, Metcalf D, Antonchuk JL, Hyland CD, Mifsud SL, Di Rago L, Hilton AA, Willson TA, Roberts AW, Ramsay RG, Nicola NA, Alexander WS. Suppressor screen in Mpl-/- mice: c-Myb mutation causes supraphysiological production of platelets in the absence of thrombopoietin signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101(17):6553-8, 2004. (* joint first authors) [58 Citations]
    10. Loughran SJ, Kruse EA, Hacking DF, de Graaf CA, Hyland CD, Willson TA, Henley KJ, Ellis S, Voss AK, Metcalf D, HILTON DJ*, Alexander WS*, Kile BT* The transcription factor Erg is essential for definitive hematopoiesis and the function of adult hematopoietic stem cells Nat. Immunol. 9:810-9, 2008 (* joint senior authors) [4 Citations]