Jody Haigh
Vascular Cell Biology
VIB Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, UGent

PhD: Univ. of Vienna, Vienna,  Austria, '99 Postdoc: Samuel Lunenfeld Research Inst., Toronto, Canada  VIB Group leader since 2004

e-mail phone +32 9 331 37 30 ADDRESS

Current team members
Group leader: Jody Haigh
Postdoctoral scientists: Benjamin Drogat, Steven Goossens
Ph.D. Students: David Nittner, Lieven Haenebalcke, Morvarid Farhang
Support personnel: Katharina Haigh, Sonia Bartunkova

Keywords
VEGF and Flk - ES-cell technology -  mouse transgenesis - cardiovascular development and disease - inducible gene expression

Science

During embryonic development, the cardiovascular system is the first organ system to be established and is essential for providing oxygen and nutrition as well as inductive signals to the developing organs. It has been demonstrated that the VEGFA ligand and receptor system are essential for virtually all aspects of cardiovascular formation and function. Targeted deletion of VEGFA and its main signalling receptor Flk1 leads to early mid-gestational lethality in the mouse as a result of improper or absent cardiovascular system development.  In addition to the vascular endothelium, there is accumulating evidence that other cell types such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, neurons and various hematopoietic cells express VEGFA receptors on their cell surface and are responsive to VEGFA. In order to further determine the role of VEGFA/Flk1 during organogenesis and in the adult, we are using a series of gain/loss of function conditional Cre-loxP as well as doxycyline-tet(o) inducible alleles to specifically investigate the function of VEGFA/Flk1 in bone, nervous system and hematopoietic cell function during development and in the adult.  In a parallel approach we have been developing novel transgenic strategies based upon ROSA26 targeting to investigate the in vitro and in vivo roles of putative downstream modulators of VEGFA signalling.

Future Directions

1. Use currently existing conditional mutant mouse lines to further elucidate the roles of VEGF-A/Flk1 in neuronal and cartilage development and disease states.
2. Use novel embryonic stem (ES) cell lines and recombinase systems to identify novel genes involved in cardiovascular development and disease.
3. Functionally characterize novel cardiovascular modulators through expression analysis, loss and gain of function experiments.
4. Link novel cardiovascular modulators to known signalling pathways.

Maes C, Goossens S, Bartunkova S, Drogat B, Coenegrachts L, Stockmans I, Moermans K, Nyabi O, Haigh K, Naessens M, Haenebalcke L, Tuckermann J, Tjwa M, Carmeliet P, Mandic V, David J, Behrens A, Nagy A, Carmeliet G, Haigh J
Increased skeletal VEGF enhances beta-catenin activity and results in excessively ossified bones
EMBO J 29, 424-41, 2010



Bellon A, Luchino J, Haigh K, Rougon G, Haigh J, Chauvet S, Mann F
VEGFR2 (KDR/Flk1) signaling mediates axon growth in response to semaphorin 3E in the developing brain
NEURON 66, 205-19, 2010



Drogat B, Kalucka J, Gutiérrez L, Hammad H, Goossens S, Farhang Ghahremani M, Bartunkova S, Haigh K, Deswarte K, Nyabi O, Naessens M, Ferrara N, Klingmüller U, Lambrecht B, Nagy A, Philipsen S, Haigh J
VEGF regulates embryonic erythroid development through GATA1 modulation
BLOOD e-pub, e-pub, 2010



Nyabi O, Naessens M, Haigh K, Gembarska A, Goossens S, Maetens M, De Clercq S, Drogat B, Haenebalcke L, Bartunkova S, De Vos I, De Craene B, Karimi-Dehkordi M, Berx G, Nagy A, Hilson P, Marine J, Haigh J
Efficient mouse transgenesis using Gateway-compatible ROSA26 locus targeting vectors and F1 hybrid ES cells
NUCLEIC ACIDS RES 37, e55, 2009



George S, Gertsenstein M, Vintersten K, Korets-Smith E, Murphy j, Stevens M, Haigh J, Nagy A
Developmental and adult phenotyping directly from mutant embryonic stem cells
P NATL ACAD SCI USA 104, 4455-60, 2007

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