Robert Insall is a professor of computational cell biology at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. His work focuses on how eukaryotic cells move, and how they choose the direction in which they move. He is known for demonstrating that cells can spread in the body and find their way through mazes by creating gradients of

chemoattractant Chemotaxis (from '' chemo-'' + ''taxis'') is the movement of an organism or entity in response to a chemical stimulus. Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemica ...

Career

Insall performed his PhD work at the

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

, working with developmental biologist Rob Kay, and his post-doctoral training with Peter Devreotes at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. After holding positions at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at

, the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and the

, he moved to

in 2023. His laboratory is currently located in the Darwin Building in Bloomsbury. He was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 2014.

Key scientific contributions

With Laura Machesky, he identified an important signaling pathway that controls the behavior of the

actin cytoskeleton Microfilaments, also called actin filaments, are protein filaments in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells that form part of the cytoskeleton. They are primarily composed of polymers of actin, but are modified by and interact with numerous other pr ...

. Insall later proposed that

chemotaxis Chemotaxis (from ''chemical substance, chemo-'' + ''taxis'') is the movement of an organism or entity in response to a chemical stimulus. Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell organism, single-cell or multicellular organisms direct thei ...

, the process by which cells move towards sources of

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s or other

s, is not driven by signaling from the

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extr ...

but instead by influencing the rate or direction of the extension of

pseudopodia A pseudopod or pseudopodium (: pseudopods or pseudopodia) is a temporary arm-like projection of a eukaryotic cell membrane that is emerged in the direction of movement. Filled with cytoplasm, pseudopodia primarily consist of actin filaments and ...

, protrusions that the cell uses to move. He later introduced the idea that instead of responding to pre-formed chemoattractant gradients, cells generate these gradients themselves by degrading the chemoattractant. He showed that the spread of cancer cells in

melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

is driven by this mechanism, and that cells migrating through a maze can tell the difference between short arms of the maze and long arms because the chemoattractant in a short arm is degraded more rapidly, allowing them to avoid getting lost.

Other activities

Insall is a frequent commentator on issues related to science policy, reproducibility, and science publishing. He was chosen by

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

students as the best communicator in the 2012 I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! competition for cancer researchers.

Family

Insall's father,

Donald Insall Sir Donald William Insall (born 7 February 1926) is a British architect, conservationist and author, who has been described as "one of the leading conservation architects of his generation". He is the founder of the architectural, conservation a ...

, is a noted architect. His wife, Laura Machesky,

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

, FMedSci is the Dunn Professor of Biochemistry at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. The two researchers frequently collaborate.

References

External links

Faculty page at UCL
{{DEFAULTSORT:Insall, Robert Living people Cell biologists Systems biologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1965 births