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Dr Angelika Stollewerk

Angelika

Reader in Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Email: a.stollewerk@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 6358
Room Number: Room 6.06, Fogg Building

Undergraduate Teaching

  • Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics (BIO213)
  • Essential Skills for Biomedical Scientists (Tutorials) (BMD100)
  • Human Molecular Biology (BMD211)
  • Reproductive and Developmental Biology (BIO337)
  • Form and Function in Biology (SEF031)

Research

Research Interests:

My research interest is the evolution of the arthropod nervous system (insects, crustaceans, myriapods, chelicerates, onychophorans). My group analyses the molecular and morphological modifications of developmental processes that have resulted in the formation of the diverse nervous systems in arthropods in order to:

  1. understand how the developmental mechanisms have been modified in the individual arthropod groups to generate the diverse nervous systems
  2. link evolutionary changes in developmental processes to adaptive changes in morphology and function of the nervous system
  3. uncover derived characters of neurogenesis that can be used for resolving euarthropod relationships

We perform comparative analyses of the development and function of the nervous system in the following arthropod species: insects: Drosophila melanogaster, Tribolium castaneum; Anopheles gambiae; crustaceans: Daphnia magna, Orchestia cavimana; chelicerates: Cupiennius salei, Achaearanea tepidariorum (spiders), Limulus polyphemus (horseshoe crab); myriapods: Glomeris marginata, Archispirostreptus spec. (millipedes), Strigamia maritima, Lithobius forficatus (centipedes), and an outgroup to the euarthropods, the onychophoran Euperipatoides kanangrensis.

We make use of recently sequenced genomes (e.g. TriboIium castaneum (insect), Daphnia pulex (crustacean), Strigamia maritima (myriapod)) and functional tools (RNA interference, chemical inhibitors, transgenics, mutants) to uncover variations in the molecular processes of neurogenesis in arthropods. Furthermore, we apply cell biological and molecular techniques to analyse the morphological processes of neurogenesis and neural expression patterns on the cellular level by using fluorescent dyes/antibodies/RNA probes and confocal laser-scanning microscopy as well as transmission and scanning electron microscopy combined with advanced software programmes for data analysis and 3D reconstruction (e.g. Imaris).

In a new collaborative approach, we use RNAseq to uncover modifications of developmental processes underlying phenotypic plasticity and to understand evolutionary changes across super-phyla.

Personal website: http://astollewerk.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/

Publications

Supervision

PhD supervision

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