John Innes Centre

Dr Stan Maree

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Curriculum Vitae

  • 1995 MSc in Biology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
  • 2000 PhD in Biology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
  • 2001-2003 Postdoctural Fellow, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
  • 2003-2006 Research Fellow, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
  • 2006-2009 Assistant Professor, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
  • 2009-present Project Leader, John Innes Centre, UK

Stan Maree

Project Leader

Computational and Systems Biology

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)1603 450828
stan.maree@jic.ac.uk

Research interests

The main theme of my group is "Modelling morphogenesis on the interface of subcellular and cellular processes''. Since we have entered the era of bioinformatics, we continuously gain better understanding of the processes that take place on the subcellular level. However, there is limited knowledge how the subcellular processes eventually lead to morphogenesis, how during embryogenesis tissues, organs, and whole organisms emerge and are able to grow, develop, and maintain themselves.

We want to fill up the missing link between gene regulation and morphogenesis. To bridge the gap, we are coupling the cellular Potts model, a cellular automata-type of model that is very powerful for describing cell dynamics, to (minimal) models of gene regulation networks. This multi-level modelling approach, in which all the pre-defined dynamics in the model are on the (sub)cellular level, while all the interesting behaviour that emerges from the model take place at different intermediate levels of organisation, as well as at the level of the whole organism, allows us to keep a relatively low level of model-complexity, since the complexity of the morphogenesis itself emerges from the interactions and entanglement of the different levels. It provides a framework in which cells can differentiate and generate shape simultaneously, and in which experimental findings related to gene regulation can be linked to the observed development, from the cellular level to the level of the whole organism.