Co-chairs:
Bill Pavan, Robert Kelsh and Hiroaki Yamamoto
Recent meetings:
  • IPCC-2017 (Denver)
  • IPCC-2014 (Singapore)
  • IPCC-2011 (Bordeaux)
  • 2013 Pigment Cell Development Workshop (May 6-8, 2013, Edinburgh, UK)
  • 2007 Pigment Cell Development Workshop (Reykjavik, Iceland) –Pictures
  • 2004 Pigment Cell Development Workshop (Bethesda, MD, USA)
Members:

Esam Agamy (United Arab Emirates), Misha Angrist (USA), Heinz Arnheiter (USA), Joe Bagnara (USA), Robert Ballotti (France), Greg Barsh (USA), Friedo Beermann (Switzerland), Alan Bernstein (Canada), Peter Besmer (USA), Walter Bordogna (UK), Roger Bowers (USA), Nigel Brown (UK), Nick Carter (UK), Aravinda Chakravarti (USA), Philippe Donatien (UK), Carol Erickson (USA), David Fisher (USA), Sally Frost Mason (USA), Toshihiko Fukuzawa (Japan), Colin Goding (UK), Nancy Gutgsell (USA) Ruth Halaban (USA), Vince Hearing (USA), Meenhard Herlyn (USA), Simon Hill (UK), Tomohisa Hirobe (Japan), Alan Houghton (USA), Kazuo Ito (Japan), Ian Jackson (UK),Kris Jessen (UK), Thomas J Hornyak (USA), Jonathan Horsford (Canada), Ling Hou (USA), Rod McInnes (Canada), Siobhan Jordan (UK), Robert Kelsh (UK), Susan Kidson (S. Africa), Michael Kluppel (Canada), Nicole Le Douarin (France), Lynn Lamoreux (USA), Lionel Larue (France), Laure Lecoin (France), Jiro Matsumoto (Japan), Estela Medrano (USA), Rhona Mirsky (UK), Masako Mizoguchi (Japan), Mark Murphy (Australia), John Naughten (USA), J. Newton (USA), Dick Niles (USA), Jim Nordlund (USA) William Oetting (USA), Seth Orlow (USA), Jean-Paul Ortonne (France), Jean-Jacques Panthier (France), Peter Parsons (Australia), Bill Pavan (USA), Sharon Prince (S. Africa), Giuseppe Prota (Italy), Walt Quevedo (USA), Michael Richardson (UK), Simon Saule (France), Toshi Shioda (USA), Maya Sieber-Blum (USA), Linda Smith-Thomas (UK), Richard Spritz (USA), Eirikur Steingrimsson (Iceland), Rick Sturm (Australia), Elena Sviderskaya (UK), Masayoshi Tachibana (USA), Giselle Thibaudeau (USA), Tony Thody (UK), Joe Verdi (Canada), Berni Wehrle-Haller (Switzerland), Jim Weston (USA), Masashi Yanagisawa (USA), Antonis Zervos (USA).

Means and objectives:

This group has been established to promote research and interaction in the fascinating and rapidly growing field of pigment cell development and differentiation from the neural crest. One means is the circulation of members’ addresses, contact numbers and active research interests, enabling the exchange of data, methodology and research materials between those with related interests. At intervals we will update and recirculate this information, and will also circulate other news, for example about meetings in the field. If resources can be found and if members are interested, it may be possible for the group, or parts of it, to meet. We will be interested to receive suggestions for other activities.

Some subthemes represented among members’ interests include:

  • Neural crest development and control of commitment to the pigment cell lineage.
  • Pigmented retina development Genetics and molecular genetics of pigment cell/neural crest development.
  • Control of proliferation, survival and migration of pigment cell precursors.
  • Definition of the precursors (how many steps are there?) and appropriate markers.
  • Control of cell differentiation – transcriptional controls, transcription factors .
  • Control of cell differentiation – extracellular controls, intracellular signalling, stability.
  • Further differentiation steps in lower vertebrates (melanophores, xanthophores, iridophores, erythrophores).
  • Differentiation and development in relation to melanoma and other pigmentary tumors.; roles of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.
  • Pigmentary pattern formation (stripes, spots, etc). Developmental abnormalities (pigmentary, neural crest) in animals and humans.
  • Piebaldism Postnatal unpigmented stem cells for this lineage (and relations to topics like carcinogenesis and post-vitiligo repigmentation).

If you are interested in joining this group, please let Bill Pavan know. You can be as active or as inactive as you wish. All you need to do is send a short message with your address, contact numbers, and a title or list of titles representing your current research interests, and you will be included as a mailing-list member. We hope that most communication will be by e-mail, though mail will also be used where necessary. If you have ideas or news for the group, or if you may be able to help in advising and /or organizing, we will be delighted to hear from you now or at any stage.