Stem cells

Human stem cells are at the forefront of modern cellular biology research due to their ability to give rise to any specialist human cell type. However, stem cells are notoriously difficult to grow in culture and exhibit complex behaviours across multiple scales.

We use statistical analysis of stem cell experiments and a variety of mathematical techniques, including stochastic differential equations and agent-based probabilistic models, to describe the key behaviours of stem cells, including their cell cycles, pluripotency, kinematics and structure formation. I completed my PhD in this area in 2020.

Recent publications:

L E Wadkin, S Orozco-Fuentes, I Neganova, M Lako, R A Barrio, A W Baggaley, N G Parker and A Shukurov. OCT4 expression in human embryonic stem cells: spatio-temporal dynamics and fate transitions.  Physical Biology 18.2 (2021).

L E Wadkin, S Orozco-Fuentes, I Neganova, M Lako, A Shukurov and N G Parker. The recent advances in the mathematical modelling of human pluripotent stem cells. Springer Nature Applied Sciences 2, 276 (2020).

L E Wadkin, S Orozco-Fuentes, I Neganova, S Bojic, A Laude, M Lako, N G Parker, and A Shukurov. Seeding hESCs to achieve optimal colony clonality. Scientific Reports 9, 15299 (2019).

Research team: Prof Nick Parker (Newcastle), Prof Anvar Shukurov (Newcastle), Dr Irina Neganova (Russian Academy of Sciences), Prof Majlinda Lako (Newcastle)

Newcastle University Academic Track Fellow (NUAcT Fellow)