Professor Henrik Jönsson
- Sainsbury Laboratory Director
- Group Leader
- Professor of Computational Morphodynamics
Contact
Location
- Sainsbury Laboratory
- 47 Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1LR
About
I am Professor of Computational Morphodynamics and Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory.
I received my master’s degree (1997) and PhD (2002) in Theoretical Physics from Lund University, Sweden, where I worked in the Complex Systems group under the supervision of Bo Söderberg. I then carried out postdoctoral research in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology in the Barbara Wold Laboratory, guided by Eric Mjolsness.
In 2008, I became an Assistant Professor in the Computational Biology and Biological Physics group at Lund University. I joined the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) as a group leader in September 2011. In 2014, I was appointed Professor of Computational Morphodynamics and Associate Director at SLCU, and I became Director in 2020.
I serve on the Editorial Advisory Board of in silico Plants (isP) and as an academic editor for PLoS ONE and the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
Research
Research interests
- Computational morphodynamics
- Shoot apical meristem (SAM)
- Gene regulatory networks
- Plant development modelling
Computational morphodynamics modelling
The focus of my research is to develop computational morphodynamics models at the cellular level to describe multicellular tissues such as the shoot apical meristem.
The models are developed in close collaboration with experimental groups and describe the dynamics of:
- Gene regulatory networks
- Hormone transport and signalling
- Cell growth and division and
- Mechanical properties
A core part of my approach is the iterative evaluation of models and their parameters using new experimental data, mainly from live microscopy.
Primorida formation at the shoot apex
Our group investigate how new primordia at the periphery of the shoot apex. The phytohormone auxin accumulates at sites where new organs form, and this is accomplished via an intricate feedback on its own transport.
At the same time, physical stresses provide the required intercellular connection for regulated transport.
At the same time, physical stresses provide the intercellular connections required for regulated transport. I also examine how cells sense these stresses during fibre formation, enabling primordia growth to be regulated and coordinated with positioning.
To address this, my models include mechanistic descriptions of molecular reactions, transport and signalling, physical stress and growth, and the interactions between these processes.
Regulation and plasticity in the shoot apical meristem
Another problem we are studying is the regulation and plasticity of cells in the shoot apical meristem, which maintains its overall cell differentiation pattern throughout the life of a plant, even as cells are replaced during symplastic growth where cells are moving out of the meristem tissue.
We have focused on developing models for gene regulation and intercellular signalling, where the experimentally known CLAVATA-WUSCHEL negative feedback provides the core of the network.
My group develops, optimises, and evaluates models using large sets of perturbation experiments. This approach focuses on identifying parameter regions that explain model network behaviour. We also investigate receptor cross-talk within this regulatory system.