Victor Tybulewicz

Biography

Victor Tybulewicz obtained his PhD in molecular biology working on the structure of the ATP synthase with John Walker at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. He then carried out postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute, MIT working in the lab of Richard Mulligan, where he developed methods for targeting genes in mouse ES cells, and published one of the first mouse knockouts and was the first to use gene targeting to make a mouse model of a human disease. In 1991 Victor Tybulewicz moved back to the UK, to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London, where he set up an independent research group working in two main areas. Firstly he used his expertise in gene targeting in the mouse to study signal transduction in lymphocytes, exploring the roles of signaling molecules such as Syk, Vav1, Rac1 and Rac2 in B and T cell development, activation and survival. Secondly, in close collaboration with Elizabeth Fisher, he used his knowledge of genetic manipulation of mice to generate a novel model of Down Syndrome, the Tc1 mouse strain. This strain of mice carries a freely segregating copy of human chromosome 21 and has a number of phenotypes resembling the human condition, including defects in learning and memory, cardiac and craniofacial defects. Victor Tybulewicz has published over 140 papers, and was elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2007 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008.

Research Interest

Molecular Biology