Jie Yin

As a fundamental cellular process, cell migration is pivotal to establishing and maintaining the proper organisation of multicellular organisms. During development, cells need to migrate from their birthplaces to their destinations. This process is spectacularly important in the central nervous system, which is the most complex and highly organised body system. Many brain malformations are caused by disrupted cell migration. Migration also plays important roles in many pathological phenomena including tissue regeneration and wound healing, immune surveillance and tumour metastasis. Cell migration requires the coordination of cell polarisation, actin cytoskeleton and microtubules. My research interests are focused on the protein molecules that bridge polarity components to actin and the microtubule machinery. I am interested in how they modulate the dynamic reorganisation of the actin and microtubule system during migration and what the consequences are if they fail to function properly.