Ivan Candido-Ferreira

DPhil Student

As part of the Sauka-Spengler group, my research focus on a remarkable transient of cells, the neural crest, that give rise to a variety of vertebrate-specific features, such as cranio-facial elements, peripheral nervous system, pigment cells, smooth muscle and many others.

Due to the unique multipotency of neural crest cells, there is today broad interest in exploring their regenerative potential in stem cell-based therapies. I investigate the architecture of neural crest-specific DNA switches, known as transcriptional enhancers, and aim to apply this knowledge to better understand how these DNA switches control neural crest fate decisions through the use of functional genomic tools and genome engineering technologies.