By Dr Carsten Gram Hansen
Chancellor’s Fellow at the Centre for Inflammation Research, The University of Edinburgh
Dr Hansen is a cell biologist with an interest in how cellular sensing is transduced from the plasma-membrane to the nucleus, and how these discissions dictate cellular functions in processes ranging from regenerative processes to cancer. Dr Hansen started his research career at MRC-LMB in Cambridge with Ben Nichols, and moved onto UCSD to work with Professor Kun-Liang Guan. He was recruited as a Chancellor’s Fellow in late 2015 to set up his independent research group at the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh. He has made several fundamental discoveries through his career, including identifying core components of caveolae and how cells gain competitive advantages in nutrient poor microenvironments, such as tumours.
His work has recently discovered how caveolae, small 60-100nm invaginations of the plasmamembrane regulate the Hippo pathway, a cellular signalling pathway. His works across multiple model organisms, including mammalian cell cultures, zebrafish and mice.
His collaborative approach uses a range of interdisciplinary and imaging techniques to obtain mechanistic insights into fundamental cellular processes, focussing on how cellular dynamics and discission making integrate changes in the cellular niche.