His work on cell signalling and behaviour has led to an improved understanding of diseases such as cancer in which fundamental biological processes are altered. Earlier in his career, he pioneered the use of caged dye technology to trace the cellular development of fruit flyembryos, and established a relationship between the alignment of frog embryos and their so-called subcortical rotation in the egg.[3]
JP Vincent has used his training in mathematics, physics to devise new techniques to solve important problems in developmental biology. Using novel laser-staining methods he discovered the cortical rotation in frog eggs. He then co-invented caged dye technology, adapted it to lineage tracing and showed that, in living Drosophila embryos, cells acquire identity step by step. Later, he introduced an HRP fusion strategy to study trafficking and epithelial organisation in transgenic animals. This allowed him show that endocytic trafficking of Wnts is spatially and temporally regulated. His work has spurred many others to investigate how trafficking modulate signalling pathways[4]
