Dr. Leif Oxburgh is a principal investigator in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute. He received his DVM and PhD in Virology from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He joined MMCRI in 2004 after leaving a Research Fellow position at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University.

Research interests

During fetal life the nephrons of the kidney develop from a homogenous mass of a few thousand cells. In order to form the mature organ this cell mass must multiply many-fold whilst simultaneously forming complex, physiologically functional filtering units. The orchestration of this developmental process has been studied in detail since the 1950s, yet the exact signals regulating it remain unknown. Many fascinating questions regarding the origin, replenishment and developmental decisions of nephron precursors remain unanswered. The aim of my work is to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and developmental potential of the progenitor population of the fetal kidney through answering two major questions: i) Which cell types are represented in the undifferentiated cell mass that gives rise to the kidney? ii) Which genetic events lead these precursors to commit to the nephrogenic developmental program? Answers to these questions will be of importance for our understanding of kidney development, physiology and therapy. Together with the strong nephrology department at Maine Medical Center, we will capitalize on these findings in collaborative translational projects.

Publications

• Chu, G., Dunn, N. R., Anderson, D., Oxburgh, L., and Robertson, E. (2004) Smad4 is necessary for specifying the anterior primitive streak but not required for multiple TGFb/BMP-dependent steps during early embryogenesis. Development 131: 3501-3512.
• Dunn, N. R., Vincent, S. D., Oxburgh, L., Robertson, E., Bikoff, E. K. (2004). Combinatorial activities of Smad2 and Smad3 regulate mesoderm formation and patterning in the mouse embryo. Development 131: 1717-1728.
• Oxburgh, L. and Robertson, E. (2002). Dynamic regulation of Smad expression during mesenchyme to epithelium transition in the metanephric kidney. Mechanisms of Development 112: 207-211.

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