Allan Sheppard

Senior Research Fellow (part time)
Senior Scientist, AgResearch
BSc (Hons), PhD

Contact details

Email: a.sheppard@auckland.ac.nz or allan.sheppard@agresearch.co.nz

Research interests

• Developmental epigenetics
• Life history and plasticity
• Evolution

After training in Australia (at Monash and then Sydney University), I spent many years in the USA as a postdoctoral fellow and faculty member at institutions such as Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis and the National Cancer Institute (NIH) in Washington DC. Increasingly I have worked at the scientific interface between academic institutions and commercial interests, recognizing the changing landscape for science as partly a business activity and the increasing reliance on advanced technologies.

My primary interest and purpose has always been to understand the molecular basis of life history and evolutionary processes. This I have endeavoured to do through the fields of neuroscience, embryonic stem cells, embryology and developmental programming of fate.

• Stem cell fate determination and embryology
• Tissue architecture and regeneration
• Systems biology
• Mathematical modelling

Stem Cell Sciences Inc
Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences
Epi Gen Research Consortium

McLean C, Wang Z, Babu K, Edwards A, Kasinathan P, Robl J, Sheppard A (2010) Normal development following chromatin transfer correlates with donor cell initial epigenetic state. Anim. Reprod. Sci.118: 388-393.

Hochberg Z, Junien C, Carel J-C, Boileau P, Deal C, Feil R, Fraga M, Constancia M, Le Bouc Y, K Lillycrop, R Scharfmann, Sheppard A, Skinner M, Szyf M, Waterland R, Waxman DJ, Whitelaw E, Ong K and Albertsson-Wikland K (2010) Child Health, Developmental Plasticity, Epigenetics, and Programming. Endocrine Reviews (in press).

Li C, Yang F and Sheppard A (2009) Adult stem cells and mammalian epimorphic regeneration (invited review) Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy 4(3): 237-251.

Nguyen, T.T., Sheppard, A.M., Kaye, P.L. and Noakes, P.G. (2007). IGF-1 and insulin activate mitogen-activated protein kinase via the type 1 IGF receptor in mouse embryonic stem cells. Reprod. 134: 41-49.

Cartwright P*, McLean C*, Sheppard A*, Rivett D, Jones K and Dalton S (2005) LIF/STAT3 controls ES cell differentiation and pluripotency by a Myc-dependent mechanism Development 132(5): 885-96 *equal contribution, listed alphabetically.

New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Liggins Institute)
‘Exploiting Nutritional Epigenomics for Improved Outcomes in Livestock Production and Human Health’
Co-Science Leader with Professor Peter Gluckman FRS

New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (AgResearch)
‘Reprogramming Cells into Cloned Animals’
Objective Leader, ‘Chromatin Remodelling in Reprogramming’

New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Liggins Institute)
‘Epigenomic Based Predictive Measures in Growth and Development’
Key Investigator