Robert Insall

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = Professor | name = Robert Insall | honorific_suffix = FRSE | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1965 | birth_place = London | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = U.K. | nationality = | fields = Cell Biology, Systems Biology, Cancer Biology | workplaces = University College London, University of Glasgow | patrons = | education = BA (Hons) University of Cambridge, PhD Cambridge University, Post-doctoral training Johns Hopkins University | alma_mater = | thesis_title = A candidate receptor for DIF in Dictyostelium. | thesis_url =  | thesis_year = 1990 | doctoral_advisor = Rob Kay | academic_advisors = Peter N. Devreotes | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Robert Insall''' is a professor of computational cell biology at University College London and the University of Glasgow. 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<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> and find their way through mazes<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Tweedy|first1=Luke|last2=Thomason|first2=Peter A.|last3=Paschke|first3=Peggy I.|last4=Martin|first4=Kirsty|last5=Machesky|first5=Laura M.|last6=Zagnoni|first6=Michele|last7=Insall|first7=Robert H.|date=2020-08-28|title=Seeing around corners: Cells solve mazes and respond at a distance using attractant breakdown|journal=Science|volume=369|issue=6507|article-number=eaay9792|doi=10.1126/science.aay9792|issn=1095-9203|pmid=32855311|s2cid=221342551}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Klein|first=Alice|title=Watch cells sniff their way around the maze from Hampton Court Palace|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253161-watch-cells-sniff-their-way-around-the-maze-from-hampton-court-palace/|access-date=2021-05-16|website=New Scientist|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> by creating gradients of chemoattractants.

== Career == Insall performed his PhD work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, working with developmental biologist Rob Kay, and his post-doctoral training with Peter Devreotes at Johns Hopkins University. After holding positions at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London, the University of Birmingham and the University of Glasgow,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Beatson Institute|title=Prof Robert Insall FRSE - Cell Migration and Chemotaxis {{!}} Invasion and Metastasis {{!}} The Beatson Institute Research Groups {{!}} Research|url=http://www.beatson.gla.ac.uk/Invasion-and-Metastasis/robert-insall-cell-migration-and-chemotaxis.html|access-date=2021-05-17|website=www.beatson.gla.ac.uk}}</ref> he moved to University College London in 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prof Robert Insall |url=https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/96659-robert-insall|access-date=2025-05-20}}</ref> His laboratory is currently located in the Darwin Building in Bloomsbury. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2014.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|title=Couple have become fellows|url=https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/13278778.couple-have-become-fellows/|access-date=2021-05-17|website=Glasgow Times|language=en}}</ref>

=== Key scientific contributions === With Laura Machesky, he identified an important signaling pathway that controls the behavior of the actin cytoskeleton.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Machesky|first1=L. M.|last2=Insall|first2=R. H.|date=1998|title=Scar1 and the related Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein, WASP, regulate the actin cytoskeleton through the Arp2/3 complex|journal=Current Biology|volume=8|issue=25|pages=1347–1356|doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(98)00015-3|issn=0960-9822|pmid=9889097|s2cid=16661755|doi-access=free}}</ref> Insall later proposed that chemotaxis, the process by which cells move towards sources of nutrients or other chemoattractants, is not driven by signaling from the cell membrane but instead by influencing the rate or direction of the extension of pseudopodia, protrusions that the cell uses to move.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert H.|date=2010|title=Understanding eukaryotic chemotaxis: a pseudopod-centred view|journal=Nature Reviews. Molecular Cell Biology|volume=11|issue=6|pages=453–458|doi=10.1038/nrm2905|issn=1471-0080|pmid=20445546|s2cid=31476082}}</ref> He later introduced the idea that instead of responding to pre-formed chemoattractant gradients, cells generate these gradients themselves by degrading the chemoattractant.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tweedy|first1=Luke|last2=Knecht|first2=David A.|last3=Mackay|first3=Gillian M.|last4=Insall|first4=Robert H.|date=2016|title=Self-Generated Chemoattractant Gradients: Attractant Depletion Extends the Range and Robustness of Chemotaxis|journal=PLOS Biology|volume=14|issue=3|article-number=e1002404|doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002404|issn=1545-7885|pmc=4794234|pmid=26981861 |doi-access=free }}</ref> He showed that the spread of cancer cells in melanoma is driven by this mechanism,<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Muinonen-Martin|first1=Andrew J.|last2=Susanto|first2=Olivia|last3=Zhang|first3=Qifeng|last4=Smethurst|first4=Elizabeth|last5=Faller|first5=William J.|last6=Veltman|first6=Douwe M.|last7=Kalna|first7=Gabriela|last8=Lindsay|first8=Colin|last9=Bennett|first9=Dorothy C.|last10=Sansom|first10=Owen J.|last11=Herd|first11=Robert|date=2014|title=Melanoma cells break down LPA to establish local gradients that drive chemotactic dispersal|journal=PLOS Biology|volume=12|issue=10|article-number=e1001966|doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001966|issn=1545-7885|pmc=4196730|pmid=25313567 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Reid|first=Rob|date=2014-10-14|title=Scottish scientists discover new clues to stopping spread of skin cancer cells around the body|url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/health/scottish-scientists-discover-new-clues-4438308|access-date=2021-05-17|website=Daily Record|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer 27 August 2020|title=Cells solved Henry VIII's infamous hedge maze by 'seeing around corners,' video shows|url=https://www.livescience.com/cells-solve-mazes-chemotaxis.html|access-date=2021-05-17|website=livescience.com|date=27 August 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Other activities === Insall is a frequent commentator on issues related to science policy,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=2011|title=Career postdocs increase scrap heap|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=471|issue=7340|page=578|doi=10.1038/471578e|pmid=21455160|bibcode=2011Natur.471..578I |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=1999-04-08|title=Cynicism and credulity|journal=Current Biology|language=English|volume=9|issue=7|pages=R231|doi=10.1016/S0960-9822(99)80147-X|issn=0960-9822|pmid=10209127|s2cid=43192942|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=2000-04-01|title=Too much of a good thing?|journal=Current Biology|language=English|volume=10|issue=7|pages=R253|doi=10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00409-7|issn=0960-9822|pmid=10753757|s2cid=935794|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=1997-11-01|title=The right stuff|journal=Current Biology|language=English|volume=7|issue=11|pages=R665|doi=10.1016/S0960-9822(06)00345-9|issn=0960-9822|pmid=9382817|doi-access=free}}</ref> reproducibility,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Siebert|first1=Sabina|last2=Machesky|first2=Laura M.|last3=Insall|first3=Robert H.|date=2015-09-14|title=Overflow in science and its implications for trust|journal=eLife|volume=4|doi=10.7554/eLife.10825|issn=2050-084X|pmc=4563216|pmid=26365552 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and science publishing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=2003|title=Impact factors: target the funding bodies|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=423|issue=6940|page=585|doi=10.1038/423585b|pmid=12789312|bibcode=2003Natur.423..585I |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Insall|first=Robert|date=2003-03-04|title=Robert Insall|journal=Current Biology|language=English|volume=13|issue=5|pages=R167–R168|doi=10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00112-X|issn=0960-9822|pmid=12620201|s2cid=5302620|doi-access=free}}</ref> He was chosen by secondary school students as the best communicator in the 2012 I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! competition for cancer researchers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Beatson 'celeb' scientist is UK winner for kids|url=https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/13245262.beatson-celeb-scientist-is-uk-winner-for-kids/|access-date=2021-05-16|website=Glasgow Times|language=en}}</ref>

== Family == Insall's father, Donald Insall, is a noted architect. His wife, Laura Machesky, FRSE, FMedSci is the Dunn Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.<ref name=":5" /> The two researchers frequently collaborate.

== References ==

== External links == *[https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/96659-robert-insall Faculty page at UCL]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Insall, Robert}} Category:Living people Category:Cell biologists Category:Systems biologists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:1965 births