Kate Gillian Storey is a developmental biologist and head of Division of Cell & Developmental Biology at University of Dundee.

Kate Storey
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Sussex; University of Cambridge
Scientific career
Fieldsneural development
InstitutionsUniversity of Dundee
Doctoral advisorMike Bate

Research and career

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Storey is a developmental biologist who investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate neural development. Her early work uncovered a fundamental cell signalling switch that controls when and where neural differentiation begins in the embryo...[1]

More recent findings link a component of this, Fibroblast Growth Factor signalling, to molecular machinery that regulates accessibility of neural genes for transcription.[2]

Storey and collaborator Jason Swedlow have also pioneered innovative live imaging techniques for monitoring cell behaviour and signalling within developing tissues. These approaches led to the discovery of a new form of cell sub-division, named apical abscission, which mediates the differentiation of new born neurons [3]

Storey undertook post-doctoral research supported by a Harkness Fellowship with professor David Weisblat,[4] at University of California, Berkeley 1987–88 and worked with Claudio Daniel Stern FRS at the University of Oxford 1990–1994. She established her independent researcher career as fellow of Christ Church, Oxford University of Oxford 1994, moving to the School of Life Sciences,[5] University of Dundee in 2000, where she has been Chair of Neural Development (2007) and Head of the Division of Cell & Developmental Biology since 2010.

Storey was elected a member of Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012, the Lister Institute for Preventative Medicine in 2014, European Molecular Biology Organization in 2016 and Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017. She was awarded the MRC Suffrage Science Heirloom Award in 2014[6] and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2015. Her research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust,[7] Medical Research Council,[8] Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council,[9] The Anatomical Society[10] and the charity Wings for Life.[11] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2022.[12]

Storey has worked on collaborative science-art projects, including with her sister Helen Storey, MBE. Their most notable work Primitive Streak[13] was funded by one of the first Wellcome Trust Sci-Art awards[14] in 1997. Named after the structure that organises formation of the tissue layers in the early embryo, this exhibition conveys the first 1000 hours of human embryonic development in a series of dresses and textiles.

References

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  1. ^ Diez del Corral, R., Olivera-Martinez, I., Goriely, A., Gale, E., Maden, M., and Storey, K (2003) Opposing FGF and Retinoid pathways control ventral neural patterning, neuronal differentiation and segmentation during body axis extension. Neuron 40, 65–79
  2. ^ Patel, N.S., Rhinn, M., Semprich, C I., Halley, P.A., Dollé P., Bickmore, W.A., and Storey, K.G. (2013) FGF signalling regulates chromatin organisation during neural differentiation via mechanisms that can be uncoupled from transcription PLoS Genet. 2013, 9:e1003614.
  3. ^ Das, R.M. and Storey, K.G. (2014) Apical abscission alters cell polarity and dismantles the primary cilium during neurogenesis. Science 343, 200–204
  4. ^ "Weisblat Lab". Weisblat Lab. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  5. ^ "School of Life Sciences". School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  6. ^ "Suffrage Science 2014 – Award ceremony for achievements in the life sciences". MRC Public Science. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Wellcome Trust". Wellcome Trust Home. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  8. ^ "MRC". Medical Research Council, MRC. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  9. ^ "BBSRC". Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  10. ^ "Anatomical Society". Anatomical Society. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  11. ^ "Wings for life". Wings for life. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Outstanding scientists elected as Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society". Royal Society. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  13. ^ "Primitive Streak Website". Primitive Streak. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  14. ^ "Insight and Exchange" (PDF). An evaluation of the Wellcome Trust's sciart programme. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
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