ZFIN Person: Young, Rodrigo

ZFIN ID: ZDB-PERS-050628-6

ZFIN ID: ZDB-PERS-050628-6

Young, Rodrigo

Email:	rodrigo.young@ucl.ac.uk
URL:
Affiliation:
Address:	Institute of Ophthalmology University College London 11-43 Bath St London, EC1V 9EL United Kingdom
Country:	United Kingdom
Phone:
Fax:
ORCID ID:	0000-0001-5765-197X

BIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research is focused on elucidating the genetic, cellular and molecular mechanisms that control eye development and growth. For this, I combine research on zebrafish and the genetic analysis of patients with developmental eye globe defects. The plan is for my research in fish models to feed candidate genes for variant discovery in patients born with very small or no eyes. On the other hand, candidate variants in genes found in these patients will be replicated by genome editing in zebrafish to study their effect on eye development.

PUBLICATIONS

Owen, N., Toms, M., Tian, Y., Toualbi, L., Richardson, R., Young, R., Tracey-White, D., Dhami, P., Beck, S., Moosajee, M. (2023) Loss of the crumbs cell polarity complex disrupts epigenetic transcriptional control and cell cycle progression in the developing retina. The Journal of pathology. 259(4):441-454

Owen, N., Toms, M., Young, R.M., Eintracht, J., Sarkar, H., Brooks, B.P., Moosajee, M., Genomics England Research Consortium (2022) Identification of 4 novel human ocular coloboma genes ANK3, BMPR1B, PDGFRA, and CDH4 through evolutionary conserved vertebrate gene analysis. Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics. 24(5):1073-1084

Varga, M., Csályi, K., Bertyák, I., Menyhárd, D.K., Poole, R.J., Cerveny, K.L., Kövesdi, D., Barátki, B., Rouse, H., Vad, Z., Hawkins, T.A., Stickney, H.L., Cavodeassi, F., Schwarz, Q., Young, R.M., Wilson, S.W. (2020) Tissue-Specific Requirement for the GINS Complex During Zebrafish Development. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology. 8:373

Young, R.M., Ewan, K.B., Ferrer, V.P., Allende, M.L., Godovac-Zimmermann, J., Dale, T.C., Wilson, S.W. (2019) Developmentally regulated Tcf7l2 splice variants mediate transcriptional repressor functions during eye formation. eLIFE. 8:

Holt, R.J., Young, R.M., Crespo, B., Ceroni, F., Curry, C.J., Bellacchio, E., Bax, D.A., Ciolfi, A., Simon, M., Fagerberg, C.R., van Binsbergen, E., De Luca, A., Memo, L., Dobyns, W.B., Mohammed, A.A., Clokie, S.J.H., Zazo Seco, C., Jiang, Y.H., Sørensen, K.P., Andersen, H., Sullivan, J., Powis, Z., Chassevent, A., Smith-Hicks, C., Petrovski, S., Antoniadi, T., Shashi, V., Gelb, B.D., Wilson, S.W., Gerrelli, D., Tartaglia, M., Chassaing, N., Calvas, P., Ragge, N.K. (2019) De Novo Missense Variants in FBXW11 Cause Diverse Developmental Phenotypes Including Brain, Eye, and Digit Anomalies. American journal of human genetics. 105(3):640-657

Young, R.M., Hawkins, T.A., Cavodeassi, F., Stickney, H.L., Schwarz, Q., Lawrence, L.M., Wierzbicki, C., Cheng, B.Y., Luo, J., Ambrosio, E.M., Klosner, A., Sealy, I.M., Rowell, J., Trivedi, C.A., Bianco, I.H., Allende, M.L., Busch-Nentwich, E.M., Gestri, G., Wilson, S.W. (2019) Compensatory growth renders Tcf7l1a dispensable for eye formation despite its requirement in eye field specification. eLIFE. 8:

Richardson, R., Owen, N., Toms, M., Young, R.M., Tracey-White, D., Moosajee, M. (2019) Transcriptome profiling of zebrafish optic fissure fusion. Scientific Reports. 9:1541

Valdivia, L.E., Lamb, D.B., Horner, W., Wierzbicki, C., Tafessu, A., Williams, A.M., Gestri, G., Krasnow, A.M., Vleeshouwer-Neumann, T.S., Givens, M., Young, R.M., Lawrence, L.M., Stickney, H.L., Hawkins, T.A., Schwarz, Q.P., Cavodeassi, F., Wilson, S.W., Cerveny, K.L. (2016) Antagonism between Gdf6a and retinoic acid pathways controls timing of retinal neurogenesis and growth of the eye in zebrafish. Development (Cambridge, England). 143(7):1087-98

Gaston-Massuet, C., McCabe, M.J., Scagliotti, V., Young, R.M., Carreno, G., Gregory, L.C., Jayakody, S.A., Pozzi, S., Gualtieri, A., Basu, B., Koniordou, M., Wu, C.I., Bancalari, R.E., Rahikkala, E., Veijola, R., Lopponen, T., Graziola, F., Turton, J., Signore, M., Mousavy Gharavy, S.N., Charolidi, N., Sokol, S.Y., Andoniadou, C.L., Wilson, S.W., Merrill, B.J., Dattani, M.T., Martinez-Barbera, J.P. (2016) Transcription factor 7-like 1 is involved in hypothalamo-pituitary axis development in mice and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113:E548-57

Hüsken, U., Stickney, H.L., Gestri, G., Bianco, I.H., Faro, A., Young, R.M., Roussigne, M., Hawkins, T.A., Beretta, C.A., Brinkmann, I., Paolini, A., Jacinto, R., Albadri, S., Dreosti, E., Tsalavouta, M., Schwarz, Q., Cavodeassi, F., Barth, A.K., Wen, L., Zhang, B., Blader, P., Yaksi, E., Poggi, L., Zigman, M., Lin, S., Wilson, S.W., Carl, M. (2014) Tcf7l2 Is Required for Left-Right Asymmetric Differentiation of Habenular Neurons. Current biology : CB. 24(19):2217-27

Moro, E., Özhan, G., Mongera, A., Beis, D., Wierzbicki, C., Young, R.M., Bournele, D., Domenichini, A., Valdivia, L.E., Lum, L., Chen, C., Amatruda, J.F., Tiso, N., Weidinger, G., and Argenton, F. (2012) In vivo Wnt signaling tracing through a transgenic biosensor fish reveals novel activity domains. Developmental Biology. 366(2):327-340

Andoniadou, C.L., Signore, M., Young, R.M., Gaston-Massuet, C., Wilson, S.W., Fuchs, E., and Martinez-Barbera, J.P. (2011) HESX1- and TCF3-mediated repression of Wnt/β-catenin targets is required for normal development of the anterior forebrain. Development (Cambridge, England). 138(22):4931-4942

Valdivia, L.E., Young, R.M., Hawkins, T.A., Stickney, H.L., Cavodeassi, F., Schwarz, Q., Pullin, L.M., Villegas, R., Moro, E., Argenton, F., Allende, M.L., and Wilson, S.W. (2011) Lef1-dependent Wnt/β-catenin signalling drives the proliferative engine that maintains tissue homeostasis during lateral line development. Development (Cambridge, England). 138(18):3931-3941

Ewan, K., Pajak, B., Stubbs, M., Todd, H., Barbeau, O., Quevedo, C., Botfield, H., Young, R., Ruddle, R., Samuel, L., Battersby, A., Raynaud, F., Allen, N., Wilson, S., Latinkic, B., Workman, P., McDonald, E., Blagg, J., Aherne, W., Dale, T. (2010) A useful approach to identify novel small-molecule inhibitors of Wnt-dependent transcription. Cancer research. 70:5963-73

Cavodeassi, F., Carreira-Barbosa, F., Young, R., Concha, M., Allende, M.L., Houart, C., Tada, M., and Wilson, S. (2005) Early Stages of Zebrafish Eye Formation Require the Coordinated Activity of Wnt11, Fz5, and the Wnt/Catenin Pathway. Neuron. 47(1):43-56

Young, R., Reyes, A., and Allende, M. (2002) Expression and splice variant analysis of the zebrafish tcf4 transcription factor. Mechanisms of Development. 117(1-2):269-273

Young, R.M., Marty, S., Nakano, Y., Wang, H., Yamamoto, D., Lin, S., and Allende, M.L. (2002) Zebrafish yolk-specific not really started (nrs) gene is a vertebrate homolog of the Drosophila spinster gene and is essential for embryogenesis. Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. 223(2):298-305

NON-ZEBRAFISH PUBLICATIONS
Young, R.M., Solis, C.J., Barriga-Fehrman, A., Abogabir, C., Thadani, A.R., Labarca, M., Bustamante, E., Tapia, C.V., Sarda, A.G., Sepulveda, F., Pozas, N., Cerpa, L.C., Lavanderos, M.A., Varela, N.M., Santibañez, A., Sandino, A.M., Reyes-Lopez, F., Dixon, G. and Quiñones, L.A. (2021) Smartphone Screen Testing, a novel pre-diagnostic method to identify SARS-CoV-2 infectious individuals. eLife 10.7554/eLife.70333

Mayor, R., Guerrero, N. Young, R.M., Gomez-Skarmeta, J.L. and Cuellar, C. (2000) A novel function for the Xslug gene: control of the dorsal endomesoderm by repressing BMP-4. Mech. Dev. 97, 47-56

Mayor, R., Young, R. M. and Vargas, A. (1999) Development of the neural crest in Xenopus. Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 43, 85-113.