Professor Peter Watson
(he/him)
Director for Postgraduate Education, Professor, Academic lead of imaging facilities, Postgraduate Research Teaching Co-ordinator
School of Biosciences
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Research overview
How mammalian cells regulate and spatially co-ordinate the process of moving cellular cargo, while ensuring that organelle homeostasis, is maintained and cargos are delivered correctly, is the focus of my research. Using small molecule inhibitors, toxins, and classical cell biology, and utilising both fluorescence and non-linear optical approaches, I study the pathways with which mammalian cells are able to move proteins,lipids and nanoparticles between cellular compartments.
Current lab members
- Dr Iwan Palmer (CALIN)
- Rhodri Thomas (GSK CASE PhD Studentship)
- Nicole Slesiona (MUSIQ ESR)
- Jan Majer (Musiq ESR)
- Carwyn Hughes (PhD student with Professor Arwyn Jones)
Previous lab members
- Dr Edward Sayers (CALIN)
- Dr Elena Koudouna (GSK PDRA)
- Dr Anika Offergeld (KTP associate)
- Dale Boorman (BBSRC Industrial CASE scholarship with Glaxosmithkline as industrial sponsor)(Now working with the BBSRC)
- Sam Jones (PDRA) (now working in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences)
- Pamela Riester (Now working at GSK)
- Dr Iestyn Pope (Microscopy Development)
- Lin He (Welsh School of Pharmacy PhD scholarship)
- Claudia Di Napoli (President's PhD Scholarship)
- Dr Jonathan Wood (Now working for InnovateUK)
- Claire Gibson (PhD in association with Q-chip)
- Bethan Goodwin (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Moses Tutesigensi (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Rebecca Gundy (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Jihua Xue (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Katie Davis (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Choonhoe Lum (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Kirsty Lewis (Undergraduate Research Project)
- James Thomas (Undergraduate Research Project)
- Zoe Bassett (Biophotonics Research Project)
- Michael Garhard (Biophotonics Research Project)
- Ian Yekhlef (Biophotonics Research Project)
- Louise Barker (CUROP student)
- Izzati Yussof (Summer student)
- Chris Towers (Wellcome Trust Summer studentship)
Publication
2024
- Majer, J. et al. 2024. Multimodal imaging of a liver-on-a-chip model using labelled and label-free optical microscopy techniques †. Lab on a Chip 24(19), pp. 4594-4608. (10.1039/d4lc00504j)
2023
- Slesiona, N., Payne, L., Pope, I., Borri, P., Langbein, W. and Watson, P. 2023. Correlative extinction and single fluorophore bleaching microscopy for ligand quantification on gold nanoparticles. Advanced Materials Interfaces 10(24), article number: 2300568. (10.1002/admi.202300568)
- Recchia, M. E. et al. 2023. Multiphoton microscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy: Imaging meets quantum (MUSIQ) roadmap.
2022
- Sayers, E. J., Palmer, I., Hope, L., Hope, P., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2022. Fluid-phase endocytosis and lysosomal degradation of bovine lactoferrin in lung cells. Pharmaceutics 14(4), article number: 855. (10.3390/pharmaceutics14040855)
2021
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Masia, F., Langbein, W., Hood, S., Borri, P. and Watson, P. 2021. Hyperspectral CARS microscopy and quantitative unsupervised analysis of deuterated and non-deuterated fatty acid storage in human cells. The Journal of Chemical Physics 155(22), article number: 224202. (10.1063/5.0065950)
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P., Borri, P. and Langbein, W. 2021. Quantification of the nonlinear susceptibility of the hydrogen and deuterium stretch vibration for biomolecules in coherent Raman microspectroscopy. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 52(9), pp. 1540-1551. (10.1002/jrs.6164)
- Herkert, E. et al. 2021. Roadmap on bio-nano-photonics. Journal of Optics 23(7), article number: 73001. (10.1088/2040-8986/abff94)
2020
- Giannakopoulou, N. et al. 2020. Four-wave-mixing microscopy reveals non-colocalisation between gold nanoparticles and fluorophore conjugates inside cells. Nanoscale 12(7), pp. 4622-4635. (10.1039/C9NR08512B)
2019
- Lorenzer, C. et al. 2019. Targeted delivery and endosomal cellular uptake of DARPin-siRNA bioconjugates: Influence of linker stability on gene silencing. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics 141, pp. 37-50. (10.1016/j.ejpb.2019.05.015)
- Jones, S., Caws, T., Hayes, A., Marsh Durban, V., Corteling, R. and Watson, P. 2019. Characterizing the cellular uptake of neural stem-cell derived exosomes using live-cell imaging techniques. Presented at: ISEV2019 Annual Meeting, Kyoto, Japan, 24-28 April 2019, Vol. 8. Vol. sup1. Wiley pp. IP12., (10.1080/20013078.2019.1593587)
- Borri, P., Giannakopoulou, N., Zoriniants, G., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P. and Langbein, W. 2019. Imaging and tracking single plasmonic nanoparticles in 3D background-free with four-wave mixing interferometry. Presented at: SPIE BIOS, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2-7 February 2019Proceedings Volume 10894, Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine XVI, Vol. 108940. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) pp. 34., (10.1117/12.2507618)
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Langbein, W., Hood, S., Borri, P. and Watson, P. 2019. Optimisation of multimodal coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy for the detection of isotope-labelled molecules. Presented at: SPIE BIOS, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2-7 February 2019Proceedings Volume 10890, Label-free Biomedical Imaging and Sensing (LBIS) 2019, Vol. 108900. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) pp. 4., (10.1117/12.2509280)
2018
- Pope, I. et al. 2018. Coherent Raman Scattering microscopy: technology developments and biological applications. Presented at: 20th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), Bucharest, Romania, 1-5 Jul 201820th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTON.2018.8473706)
- He, L., Sayers, E. J., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2018. Contrasting roles for actin in the cellular uptake of cell penetrating peptide conjugates. Scientific Reports 8(1), article number: 7318. (10.1038/s41598-018-25600-8)
- Masia, F., Pope, I., Watson, P., Langbein, W. and Borri, P. 2018. Bessel-beam hyperspectral CARS microscopy with sparse sampling: enabling high-content high-throughput label-free quantitative chemical imaging. Analytical Chemistry 90(6), pp. 3775-3785. (10.1021/acs.analchem.7b04039)
- Sayers, E. J. et al. 2018. Switching of macromolecular ligand display by thermoresponsive polymers mediates endocytosis of multi-conjugate nanoparticles. Bioconjugate Chemistry 29(4), pp. 1030-1046. (10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.7b00704)
- Zaki, A. et al. 2018. Defined covalent assembly of protein molecules on graphene using a genetically encoded photochemical reaction handle. RSC Advances 8, pp. 5768-5775. (10.1039/c7ra11166e)
2017
- Roberts-Dalton, H. D. et al. 2017. Fluorescence labelling of extracellular vesicles using a novel thiol-based strategy for quantitative analysis of cellular delivery and intracellular traffic. Nanoscale 9(36), pp. 13693-13706. (10.1039/C7NR04128D)
- Brazzale, C. et al. 2017. Control of targeting ligand display by pH-responsive polymers on gold nanoparticles mediates selective entry into cancer cells. Nanoscale 9(31), pp. 11137-11147. (10.1039/C7NR02595E)
- Perry, I. et al. 2017. Production of 3D printed scale models from microscope volume datasets for use in STEM education. EMS Engineering Science Journal 1(1), article number: 2.
2016
- Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Masia, F., Langbein, W., Watson, P. and Borri, P. 2016. Quantitative spatiotemporal chemical profiling of individual lipid droplets by hyperspectral CARS microscopy in living human adipose-derived stem cells. Analytical Chemistry 88(7), pp. 3677-3685. (10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04468)
2015
- Moody, P. R., Sayers, E. J., Magnusson, J. P., Alexander, C., Borri, P., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2015. Receptor crosslinking: a general method to trigger internalization and lysosomal targeting of therapeutic receptor: ligand complexes. Molecular Therapy 23(12), pp. 1888-1898. (10.1038/mt.2015.178)
- Reddington, S. C., Driezis, S., Hartley, A. M., Watson, P. D., Rizkallah, P. J. and Jones, D. D. 2015. Genetically encoded phenyl azide photochemistry drives positive and negative functional modulation of a red fluorescent protein. RSC Advances 5(95), pp. 77734-77738. (10.1039/C5RA13552D)
- He, L., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2015. Visualizing actin architectures in cells incubated with cell-penetrating peptides. In: Langel, U. ed. Cell-Penetrating Peptides: Methods and Protocols., Vol. 1324. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 1324. Springer, pp. 247-259., (10.1007/978-1-4939-2806-4_16)
2014
- Sayers, E. J., Cleal, K., Eissa, N. G., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2014. Distal phenylalanine modification for enhancing cellular delivery of fluorophores, proteins and quantum dots by cell penetrating peptides. Journal of Controlled Release 195, pp. 55-62. (10.1016/j.jconrel.2014.07.055)
- Pope, I. et al. 2014. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy of single nanodiamonds. Nature Nanotechnology 9(11), pp. 940-946. (10.1038/nnano.2014.210)
- Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P. D., Langbein, W. W. and Borri, P. 2014. Hyperspectral and differential CARS microscopy for quantitative chemical imaging in human adipocytes. Biomedical Optics Express 5(5), pp. 1378-1390. (10.1364/BOE.5.001378)
2013
- Reddington, S. C., Rizkallah, P., Watson, P. D., Pearson, R., Tippmann, E. M. and Jones, D. D. 2013. Different photochemical events of a genetically encoded phenyl azide define and modulate GFP fluorescence. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 52(23), pp. 5974-5977. (10.1002/anie.201301490)
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2013. Simultaneous hyperspectral differential-CARS, TPF and SHG microscopy with a single 5 fs Ti:Sa laser. Optics Express 21(6), pp. 7096-7106. (10.1364/OE.21.007096)
- Reddington, S. C., Watson, P. D., Rizkallah, P., Tippmann, E. M. and Jones, D. D. 2013. Genetically encoding phenyl azide chemistry: new uses and ideas for classical biochemistry. Biochemical Society Transactions 41(5), pp. 1177-1182. (10.1042/BST20130094)
- Cleal, K., He, L., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2013. Endocytosis, intracellular traffic and fate of cell penetrating peptide based conjugates and nanoparticles. Current Pharmaceutical Design 19(16), pp. 2878-2894. (10.2174/13816128113199990297)
2012
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2012. Live cell imaging with chemical specificity using dual frequency CARS microscopy. In: Conn, P. M. ed. Imaging and Spectroscopic Analysis of Living Cells — Optical and Spectroscopic Techniques. Methods in Enzymology Vol. 504. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 273-291., (10.1016/B978-0-12-391857-4.00014-8)
2011
- Langbein, W. W., Rocha-Mendoza, I., Masia, F., Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2011. Differential CARS microscopy with linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses. Presented at: Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences XI, San Francisco, CA, USA, 23-25 January 2011 Presented at Periasamy, A., König, K. and So, P. T. C. eds.Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences XI, Vol. 7903. SPIE Proceedings SPIE pp. 79031I., (10.1117/12.873872)
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2011. Triply surface-plasmon resonant four-wave mixing imaging of gold nanoparticles. Presented at: Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine VIII, San Francisco, CA, USA, 23-24 January 2011 Presented at Vo-Dinh, T. and Lakowicz, J. R. eds.Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine VIII, Vol. 7911. Proceedings of SPIE S P I E - International Society for Optical Engineering pp. 79110Y., (10.1117/12.873883)
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2011. CARS imaging for high throughput microscopy. Biotech International 23(Apr/Ma), pp. 11-13.
2010
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2010. Four-wave mixing imaging to study protein entry and release in mammalian cells [Abstract]. Drug Discovery Today 15(23-24), pp. 1089. (10.1016/j.drudis.2010.09.377)
- Spooner, R. A. and Watson, P. D. 2010. Drug targeting: Learning from toxin entry and trafficking in mammalian cells. Current Opinion in Drug Discovery & Development 13(1), pp. 86-95.
2009
- Hughes, H. et al. 2009. Organisation of human ER-exit sites: requirements for the localisation of Sec16 to transitional ER. Journal of Cell Science 122(16), pp. 2924-2934. (10.1242/jcs.044032)
- Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Four-wave mixing of gold nanoparticles for three-dimensional cell microscopy. Presented at: Lasers and Electro-Optics 2009 and the European Quantum Electronics Conference. CLEO Europe - EQEC 2009. European Conference on, Munich, Germany, 14-19 June 2009 Presented at Masia, F. et al. eds.2009 Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics Europe & 11th European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC 2009). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ), (10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2009.5191714)
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Resonant four-wave mixing of gold nanoparticles for three-dimensional cell microscopy. Optics Letters 34(12), pp. 1816-1818. (10.1364/OL.34.001816)
- Watson, P. D. 2009. Live cell imaging for target and drug discovery. Drug News and Perspectives 22(2), pp. 69-79.
- Shimshoni, J. A., Dalton, E. C., Watson, P. D., Yagen, B., Bialer, M. and Harwood, A. J. 2009. Evaluation of the effects of propylisopropylacetic acid (PIA) on neuronal growth cone morphology. Neuropharmacology 56(4), pp. 831-837. (10.1016/j.neuropharm.2009.01.014)
- Rocha-Mendoza, I., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Differential coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy with linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses. Optics Letters 34(15), pp. 2258-2260. (10.1364/OL.34.002258)
2008
- Wakana, Y. et al. 2008. Bap31 Is an itinerant protein that moves between the peripheral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and a juxtanuclear compartment related to ER-associated degradation. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19(5), pp. 1825-1836. (10.1091/mbc.E07-08-0781)
- Spooner, R. A. et al. 2008. The secretion inhibitor Exo2 perturbs trafficking of Shiga toxin between endosomes and the trans-Golgi network. Biochemical Journal 414(3), pp. 471-484. (10.1042/BJ20080149)
- Wakana, Y. et al. 2008. Bap31 is an itinerant protein that moves between the peripheral ER and a juxtanuclear compartment related to ER-associated degradation. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19(5), pp. 1825-1836. (10.1091/mbc.E07-08-0781)
2006
- Watson, P. D. and Stephens, D. J. 2006. Microtubule plus-end loading of p150Glued is mediated by EB1 and Clip-170 but is not required for intracellular membrane traffic in mammalian cells. Journal Cell Science 119(Pt 13), pp. 2758-67. (10.1242/jcs.02999)
- Watson, P. D., Townley, A. K., Koka, P., Palmer, K. J. and Stephens, D. J. 2006. Sec16 defines endoplasmic reticulum exit sites and is required for secretory cargo export in mammalian cells. Traffic 7(12), pp. 1678-1687. (10.1111/j.1600-0854.2006.00493.x)
2005
- Watson, P. D., Jones, A. T. and Stephens, D. J. 2005. Intracellular trafficking pathways and drug delivery: fluorescence imaging of living and fixed cells. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 57(1), pp. 43-61. (10.1016/j.addr.2004.05.003)
2004
- Watson, P. D., Forster, R., Palmer, K. J., Pepperkok, R. and Stephens, D. J. 2004. Coupling of ER exit to microtubules through direct interaction of COPII with dynactin. Nature Cell Biology 7, pp. 48-55. (10.1038/ncb1206)
- Spooner, R. A. et al. 2004. Protein disulphide-isomerase reduces ricin to its A and B chains in the endoplasmic reticulum. Biochemical Journal 383(Pt 2), pp. 285-293. (10.1042/BJ20040742)
2003
- Lord, J. M. et al. 2003. Retrograde transport of toxins across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Biochemical Society Transactions 31, pp. 1260-1262.
Articles
- Majer, J. et al. 2024. Multimodal imaging of a liver-on-a-chip model using labelled and label-free optical microscopy techniques †. Lab on a Chip 24(19), pp. 4594-4608. (10.1039/d4lc00504j)
- Slesiona, N., Payne, L., Pope, I., Borri, P., Langbein, W. and Watson, P. 2023. Correlative extinction and single fluorophore bleaching microscopy for ligand quantification on gold nanoparticles. Advanced Materials Interfaces 10(24), article number: 2300568. (10.1002/admi.202300568)
- Sayers, E. J., Palmer, I., Hope, L., Hope, P., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2022. Fluid-phase endocytosis and lysosomal degradation of bovine lactoferrin in lung cells. Pharmaceutics 14(4), article number: 855. (10.3390/pharmaceutics14040855)
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Masia, F., Langbein, W., Hood, S., Borri, P. and Watson, P. 2021. Hyperspectral CARS microscopy and quantitative unsupervised analysis of deuterated and non-deuterated fatty acid storage in human cells. The Journal of Chemical Physics 155(22), article number: 224202. (10.1063/5.0065950)
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P., Borri, P. and Langbein, W. 2021. Quantification of the nonlinear susceptibility of the hydrogen and deuterium stretch vibration for biomolecules in coherent Raman microspectroscopy. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 52(9), pp. 1540-1551. (10.1002/jrs.6164)
- Herkert, E. et al. 2021. Roadmap on bio-nano-photonics. Journal of Optics 23(7), article number: 73001. (10.1088/2040-8986/abff94)
- Giannakopoulou, N. et al. 2020. Four-wave-mixing microscopy reveals non-colocalisation between gold nanoparticles and fluorophore conjugates inside cells. Nanoscale 12(7), pp. 4622-4635. (10.1039/C9NR08512B)
- Lorenzer, C. et al. 2019. Targeted delivery and endosomal cellular uptake of DARPin-siRNA bioconjugates: Influence of linker stability on gene silencing. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics 141, pp. 37-50. (10.1016/j.ejpb.2019.05.015)
- He, L., Sayers, E. J., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2018. Contrasting roles for actin in the cellular uptake of cell penetrating peptide conjugates. Scientific Reports 8(1), article number: 7318. (10.1038/s41598-018-25600-8)
- Masia, F., Pope, I., Watson, P., Langbein, W. and Borri, P. 2018. Bessel-beam hyperspectral CARS microscopy with sparse sampling: enabling high-content high-throughput label-free quantitative chemical imaging. Analytical Chemistry 90(6), pp. 3775-3785. (10.1021/acs.analchem.7b04039)
- Sayers, E. J. et al. 2018. Switching of macromolecular ligand display by thermoresponsive polymers mediates endocytosis of multi-conjugate nanoparticles. Bioconjugate Chemistry 29(4), pp. 1030-1046. (10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.7b00704)
- Zaki, A. et al. 2018. Defined covalent assembly of protein molecules on graphene using a genetically encoded photochemical reaction handle. RSC Advances 8, pp. 5768-5775. (10.1039/c7ra11166e)
- Roberts-Dalton, H. D. et al. 2017. Fluorescence labelling of extracellular vesicles using a novel thiol-based strategy for quantitative analysis of cellular delivery and intracellular traffic. Nanoscale 9(36), pp. 13693-13706. (10.1039/C7NR04128D)
- Brazzale, C. et al. 2017. Control of targeting ligand display by pH-responsive polymers on gold nanoparticles mediates selective entry into cancer cells. Nanoscale 9(31), pp. 11137-11147. (10.1039/C7NR02595E)
- Perry, I. et al. 2017. Production of 3D printed scale models from microscope volume datasets for use in STEM education. EMS Engineering Science Journal 1(1), article number: 2.
- Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Masia, F., Langbein, W., Watson, P. and Borri, P. 2016. Quantitative spatiotemporal chemical profiling of individual lipid droplets by hyperspectral CARS microscopy in living human adipose-derived stem cells. Analytical Chemistry 88(7), pp. 3677-3685. (10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04468)
- Moody, P. R., Sayers, E. J., Magnusson, J. P., Alexander, C., Borri, P., Watson, P. and Jones, A. T. 2015. Receptor crosslinking: a general method to trigger internalization and lysosomal targeting of therapeutic receptor: ligand complexes. Molecular Therapy 23(12), pp. 1888-1898. (10.1038/mt.2015.178)
- Reddington, S. C., Driezis, S., Hartley, A. M., Watson, P. D., Rizkallah, P. J. and Jones, D. D. 2015. Genetically encoded phenyl azide photochemistry drives positive and negative functional modulation of a red fluorescent protein. RSC Advances 5(95), pp. 77734-77738. (10.1039/C5RA13552D)
- Sayers, E. J., Cleal, K., Eissa, N. G., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2014. Distal phenylalanine modification for enhancing cellular delivery of fluorophores, proteins and quantum dots by cell penetrating peptides. Journal of Controlled Release 195, pp. 55-62. (10.1016/j.jconrel.2014.07.055)
- Pope, I. et al. 2014. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy of single nanodiamonds. Nature Nanotechnology 9(11), pp. 940-946. (10.1038/nnano.2014.210)
- Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P. D., Langbein, W. W. and Borri, P. 2014. Hyperspectral and differential CARS microscopy for quantitative chemical imaging in human adipocytes. Biomedical Optics Express 5(5), pp. 1378-1390. (10.1364/BOE.5.001378)
- Reddington, S. C., Rizkallah, P., Watson, P. D., Pearson, R., Tippmann, E. M. and Jones, D. D. 2013. Different photochemical events of a genetically encoded phenyl azide define and modulate GFP fluorescence. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 52(23), pp. 5974-5977. (10.1002/anie.201301490)
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2013. Simultaneous hyperspectral differential-CARS, TPF and SHG microscopy with a single 5 fs Ti:Sa laser. Optics Express 21(6), pp. 7096-7106. (10.1364/OE.21.007096)
- Reddington, S. C., Watson, P. D., Rizkallah, P., Tippmann, E. M. and Jones, D. D. 2013. Genetically encoding phenyl azide chemistry: new uses and ideas for classical biochemistry. Biochemical Society Transactions 41(5), pp. 1177-1182. (10.1042/BST20130094)
- Cleal, K., He, L., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2013. Endocytosis, intracellular traffic and fate of cell penetrating peptide based conjugates and nanoparticles. Current Pharmaceutical Design 19(16), pp. 2878-2894. (10.2174/13816128113199990297)
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2011. CARS imaging for high throughput microscopy. Biotech International 23(Apr/Ma), pp. 11-13.
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2010. Four-wave mixing imaging to study protein entry and release in mammalian cells [Abstract]. Drug Discovery Today 15(23-24), pp. 1089. (10.1016/j.drudis.2010.09.377)
- Spooner, R. A. and Watson, P. D. 2010. Drug targeting: Learning from toxin entry and trafficking in mammalian cells. Current Opinion in Drug Discovery & Development 13(1), pp. 86-95.
- Hughes, H. et al. 2009. Organisation of human ER-exit sites: requirements for the localisation of Sec16 to transitional ER. Journal of Cell Science 122(16), pp. 2924-2934. (10.1242/jcs.044032)
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Resonant four-wave mixing of gold nanoparticles for three-dimensional cell microscopy. Optics Letters 34(12), pp. 1816-1818. (10.1364/OL.34.001816)
- Watson, P. D. 2009. Live cell imaging for target and drug discovery. Drug News and Perspectives 22(2), pp. 69-79.
- Shimshoni, J. A., Dalton, E. C., Watson, P. D., Yagen, B., Bialer, M. and Harwood, A. J. 2009. Evaluation of the effects of propylisopropylacetic acid (PIA) on neuronal growth cone morphology. Neuropharmacology 56(4), pp. 831-837. (10.1016/j.neuropharm.2009.01.014)
- Rocha-Mendoza, I., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Differential coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy with linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses. Optics Letters 34(15), pp. 2258-2260. (10.1364/OL.34.002258)
- Wakana, Y. et al. 2008. Bap31 Is an itinerant protein that moves between the peripheral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and a juxtanuclear compartment related to ER-associated degradation. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19(5), pp. 1825-1836. (10.1091/mbc.E07-08-0781)
- Spooner, R. A. et al. 2008. The secretion inhibitor Exo2 perturbs trafficking of Shiga toxin between endosomes and the trans-Golgi network. Biochemical Journal 414(3), pp. 471-484. (10.1042/BJ20080149)
- Wakana, Y. et al. 2008. Bap31 is an itinerant protein that moves between the peripheral ER and a juxtanuclear compartment related to ER-associated degradation. Molecular Biology of the Cell 19(5), pp. 1825-1836. (10.1091/mbc.E07-08-0781)
- Watson, P. D. and Stephens, D. J. 2006. Microtubule plus-end loading of p150Glued is mediated by EB1 and Clip-170 but is not required for intracellular membrane traffic in mammalian cells. Journal Cell Science 119(Pt 13), pp. 2758-67. (10.1242/jcs.02999)
- Watson, P. D., Townley, A. K., Koka, P., Palmer, K. J. and Stephens, D. J. 2006. Sec16 defines endoplasmic reticulum exit sites and is required for secretory cargo export in mammalian cells. Traffic 7(12), pp. 1678-1687. (10.1111/j.1600-0854.2006.00493.x)
- Watson, P. D., Jones, A. T. and Stephens, D. J. 2005. Intracellular trafficking pathways and drug delivery: fluorescence imaging of living and fixed cells. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 57(1), pp. 43-61. (10.1016/j.addr.2004.05.003)
- Watson, P. D., Forster, R., Palmer, K. J., Pepperkok, R. and Stephens, D. J. 2004. Coupling of ER exit to microtubules through direct interaction of COPII with dynactin. Nature Cell Biology 7, pp. 48-55. (10.1038/ncb1206)
- Spooner, R. A. et al. 2004. Protein disulphide-isomerase reduces ricin to its A and B chains in the endoplasmic reticulum. Biochemical Journal 383(Pt 2), pp. 285-293. (10.1042/BJ20040742)
- Lord, J. M. et al. 2003. Retrograde transport of toxins across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Biochemical Society Transactions 31, pp. 1260-1262.
Book sections
- He, L., Watson, P. D. and Jones, A. T. 2015. Visualizing actin architectures in cells incubated with cell-penetrating peptides. In: Langel, U. ed. Cell-Penetrating Peptides: Methods and Protocols., Vol. 1324. Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 1324. Springer, pp. 247-259., (10.1007/978-1-4939-2806-4_16)
- Pope, I., Langbein, W. W., Borri, P. and Watson, P. D. 2012. Live cell imaging with chemical specificity using dual frequency CARS microscopy. In: Conn, P. M. ed. Imaging and Spectroscopic Analysis of Living Cells — Optical and Spectroscopic Techniques. Methods in Enzymology Vol. 504. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 273-291., (10.1016/B978-0-12-391857-4.00014-8)
Conferences
- Jones, S., Caws, T., Hayes, A., Marsh Durban, V., Corteling, R. and Watson, P. 2019. Characterizing the cellular uptake of neural stem-cell derived exosomes using live-cell imaging techniques. Presented at: ISEV2019 Annual Meeting, Kyoto, Japan, 24-28 April 2019, Vol. 8. Vol. sup1. Wiley pp. IP12., (10.1080/20013078.2019.1593587)
- Borri, P., Giannakopoulou, N., Zoriniants, G., Pope, I., Masia, F., Watson, P. and Langbein, W. 2019. Imaging and tracking single plasmonic nanoparticles in 3D background-free with four-wave mixing interferometry. Presented at: SPIE BIOS, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2-7 February 2019Proceedings Volume 10894, Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine XVI, Vol. 108940. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) pp. 34., (10.1117/12.2507618)
- Boorman, D., Pope, I., Langbein, W., Hood, S., Borri, P. and Watson, P. 2019. Optimisation of multimodal coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy for the detection of isotope-labelled molecules. Presented at: SPIE BIOS, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2-7 February 2019Proceedings Volume 10890, Label-free Biomedical Imaging and Sensing (LBIS) 2019, Vol. 108900. Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) pp. 4., (10.1117/12.2509280)
- Pope, I. et al. 2018. Coherent Raman Scattering microscopy: technology developments and biological applications. Presented at: 20th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), Bucharest, Romania, 1-5 Jul 201820th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON). IEEE, (10.1109/ICTON.2018.8473706)
- Langbein, W. W., Rocha-Mendoza, I., Masia, F., Di Napoli, C., Pope, I., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2011. Differential CARS microscopy with linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses. Presented at: Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences XI, San Francisco, CA, USA, 23-25 January 2011 Presented at Periasamy, A., König, K. and So, P. T. C. eds.Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences XI, Vol. 7903. SPIE Proceedings SPIE pp. 79031I., (10.1117/12.873872)
- Masia, F., Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2011. Triply surface-plasmon resonant four-wave mixing imaging of gold nanoparticles. Presented at: Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine VIII, San Francisco, CA, USA, 23-24 January 2011 Presented at Vo-Dinh, T. and Lakowicz, J. R. eds.Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine VIII, Vol. 7911. Proceedings of SPIE S P I E - International Society for Optical Engineering pp. 79110Y., (10.1117/12.873883)
- Langbein, W. W., Watson, P. D. and Borri, P. 2009. Four-wave mixing of gold nanoparticles for three-dimensional cell microscopy. Presented at: Lasers and Electro-Optics 2009 and the European Quantum Electronics Conference. CLEO Europe - EQEC 2009. European Conference on, Munich, Germany, 14-19 June 2009 Presented at Masia, F. et al. eds.2009 Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics Europe & 11th European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO EUROPE/EQEC 2009). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ), (10.1109/CLEOE-EQEC.2009.5191714)
Monographs
- Recchia, M. E. et al. 2023. Multiphoton microscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy: Imaging meets quantum (MUSIQ) roadmap.
Research
The compartmentalisation of mammalian cells allows the organisation of internal structures that have specific and distinct identity and function. Movement of components (proteins, lipids and solutes) between these structures is an ordered process, and occurs by the shuttling of membrane bound transport vesicles. Cargo is selectively incorporated into forming vesicles and targeted to their destination, where they fuse membranes with the acceptor compartment and deliver their cargo.
The machinery responsible for this targeted delivery needs to be returned to the original compartment to balance organelle homeostasis, and so these proteins are retrieved through a process of retrograde transport. Individual compartments are continually in a state of flux, and compartmental proteins and lipids are maintained through a balance of targeting, retention and retrieval. Components are continually moving between compartments, and it is the balance of traffic between them that defines the steady-state localisation of a molecule.
How mammalian cells regulate and spatially co-ordinate this process, to ensure that organelle homeostasis is maintained and cargo's are delivered correctly, is the focus of my research. I am also interested in developing novel microscopy techniques to allow the visualisation and quantification of intracellular structures.
CARS microscopy
In collaboration with Dr Paola Borri and Professor Wolfgang Langbein, we are utilising coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering microscopy to study lipid homeostasis within eukaryotic cells. CARS microscopy joins the chemical sensitivity and label-free noninvasiveness offered by vibrational spectroscopy with the inherent 3D sectioning capability of multiphoton microscopy. We have recently published our work on a method to perform frequency differential CARS (D-CARS) in Optics Letters.
Four Wave mixing imaging (FWM)
In collaboration with Dr Paola Borri and Professor Wolfgang Langbein, we have demonstrated a novel multiphoton microscope based on the detection of four wave mixing emitted from gold nanoparticles. This allows us to perform background free imaging of single gold labels of small sizes (down to 5nm) with sub-micrometer resolution. We have recently published this work in Optics Letters and are now investigating the applicability of this technique to the life sciences.
Microscopes
We have a number of microscopes within the lab available for use:
- Bernard: Widefield fast timelapse configured for DAPI/FITC/TRITC and CFP/YFP/RFP fluorescence imaging and phase contrast for brightfield imaging.
- Clarissa: Widefield fast timelapse configured for DAPI/FITC/TRITC/Cy5 fluorescence imaging and DIC for brightfield imaging
- Floyd: Zeiss LSM410 confocal system, currently being reconditioned. Still in use for TRITC/Cy5 fluorescence imaging.
We also have an eppendorf microinjection system that will fit on each of these microscopes to allow the microinjection, or microdelivery of material to the cell, or its local environment.
Collaborations
Cardiff University
- Arwyn Jones
- Paola Borri
- Wolfgang Langbein
- Dafydd Jones
- Mark Gumbleton
COMPACT consortium
http://www.compact-research.org/
University of Bristol
- David Stephens
University of Nottingham
- Cameron Alexander
- Jonathan Aylott
University of Warwick
- Mike Lord
- Lynne Roberts
- Robert Spooner
Teaching
Teaching
Module Lead for BI3253 - Advanced Cell Biology and Imaging. The aim of this module is to develop an advanced understanding of Cell Biology and the imaging methods utilised within the scientific field. It will address the major processes occurring within the cell (including membrane structure, function and transport, the endomembrane system, apoptosis, and cell death), and also expand into specialised cell biology systems (stem cells, diseased cells). The theory and application of advanced imaging technique will be addressed and students will develop an understanding of state of the art light and electron microscopy techniques.
Contributor to BI4002 - Advanced Research Methods
Contributor to BIT002 - Research Techniques in Bioscience
Positions available
PhD
If you are interested in the fields of membrane trafficking, microscope development or drug delivery, and would like to be considered for a project within the lab send me an email with your background, research interests and current CV, or search for Cardiff projects on FindaPhD.com
Other positions
We are always interested in hosting self-funded positions within our research group, and there are a number of projects available in the fields of protein/lipid trafficking, drug delivery and microscope development. To discuss any of these projects, just get in touch.
Biography
I attained my first degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, and gained my PhD under the supervision of Professor John Davey at the University of Warwick, studying the pheromone communication pathway of fission yeast. Staying at the University of Warwick, in 2000 I started studying toxin trafficking within the labs of Professors Mike Lord and Lynne Roberts, and during this time I was lucky enough to be trained in light microscopy by Dr. Jez Simpson and Dr. Rainer Pepperkok at EMBL in Heidelberg.
Towards the end of 2003 I moved to the lab of Dr. David Stephens at the University of Bristol, where I used both light and electron microscopy to look at how proteins exit the ER and are moved throughout the cell in membranous transport carriers.
In February 2007 I moved to the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University to take up an RCUK Fellowship in Translational Research in Experimental Medicine.
Supervisions
Current supervision
Rhod Thomas
Research student
Jan Majer
Research student
Carwyn Hughes
Graduate Demonstrator
Nicole Slesiona
Research student
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Biochemistry and cell biology
- Fluorescence microscopy
- Drug delivery
- Drug Trafficking