James Briscoe facts for kids

James Briscoe is a British scientist. He works as a senior group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London. He also leads the science journal Development as its editor-in-chief.

Education and Early Career

James Briscoe studied at the University of Warwick and King's College London. He earned his PhD degree in 1996. His research focused on how cells communicate using special proteins. This work helped understand how our bodies react to things like infections.

After his PhD, Dr. Briscoe worked as a researcher at Columbia University. In 2000, he started his own research group. This group was at the National Institute for Medical Research.

Research on Development

Dr. Briscoe's research looks at how living things grow and develop. He is very interested in the developing spinal cord. The spinal cord is a vital part of our nervous system. He studies how signals, like "sonic hedgehog" gradients, guide its growth.

To do this, he uses different methods. He uses both lab experiments and computer models. He studies mice and chick embryos. He also uses embryonic stem cells. These studies help us understand how bodies form.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Briscoe has received several important awards. In 2008, he won the EMBO Gold Medal. He became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2009.

In 2018, he became the main editor of the journal Development. This is a very important science journal. In 2019, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). These honors show his important contributions to science.