Thomas A. Drysdale, PhD


Children’s Health Research Institute
Scientist, Developmental Biology Program


Lawson Health Research Institute
Scientist, Children's Health Research Institute


University of Western Ontario

Director, Collaborative Graduate Program in Developmental Biology
Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Physiology & Pharmacology
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology


Contact Information
Tel: (519) 685-8500 Ext. 55072
Fax: (519) 685-8186
E-mail: tdrysdale@lri.sjhc.london.on.ca

Brief Biography

Dr. Tom Drysdale received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1981 and his MSc degree in 1986 from the University of Guelph. He then completed his doctorate with Dr. R. Elinson at the University of Toronto examining the development and patterning of surface ectoderm in Xenopus. Upon completion of his PhD in 1992, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Paul Krieg at the University of Texas in Austin. That postdoctoral work led to the development of key tools that have enabled Xenopus to become an excellent tool for the examination of cardiac development.


Dr. Drysdale became a Principal Investigator at the Lawson Health Research Institute in 1995 and was appointed an Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at The University of Western Ontario. In 1997, he was cross-appointed to the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Dr. Drysdale was awarded a Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Scholarship in 1999 and is currently funded by the CIHR.


Research Interests

• development and patterning of the heart
• the role of retinoic acid in early embryogenesis
• the role of RNA-binding proteins in embryonic development


Research Activities

Dr. Drysdale’s lab is interested in understanding how the heart forms. The main focus is to learn the multiple roles that retinoic acid has in this process. His team has shown that excess retinoic acid can cause severe disruptions to heart development and even prevent the formation of a differentiated heart. They have illustrated that it disrupts the expression of key early cardiac transcription factors such as Nkx2.5 and GATA-4. When retinoic acid signaling is blocked, they have found significant disruptions to cardiac morphogenesis. Recently, his team completed a comprehensive survey of gene expression changes in these embryos using Affymetrix GeneChip? technology. This has enabled them to uncover a molecular basis for the observed phenotypes. Dr. Drysdale and his team are also interested in the role of hermes, an RNA-binding protein, that is highly expressed in the developing heart. This project is being done using genetically altered mice and cell culture techniques.

 

Awards and Recognition

Funding in support of "The Roles of Retinoic acid in Cardiac Development and Physiology" - Awarded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research

 

Funding in support of Graduate Studentship - Awarded by Lawson Health Research Institure

 

Funding in support of Graduate Studentship - Awarded by Department of Paediatrics

 

Interdisciplinary Development Initiative Award for the Collaborative Graduate Program in Developmental Biology - Awarded by University of Western Ontario

 

Publications

  1. Deimling, S.J., and Drysdale, T.A.  (2008) Retinoic acid regulates anterior-posterior pattering within the lateral plate mesoderm of Xenopus. Mechanisms of Development (Submitted for publication)
  2. Friendship, C.R.C., Wang, H.J., Chadraratna, R.A.S., and Drysdale, T.A. (2008) Clusterin is expressed in a unique subset of neurons during early Xenopus embryogenesis. Int. J. Dev. Biol. (Submitted for publication)
  3. Collop, A.H., Broomfield, J.A., Chandraratna, R. A., Yong Z., Deimling, S. J., Kolker, S.J., Weeks, D.L., and Drysdale, T.A. (2006). Retinoic acid signaling is essential for formation of the heart tube in Xenopus. Developmental Biology in press.
  4. Cossette, S. M. M., and Drysdale, T. A. (2004). Early expression of thyroid hormone receptor ? in the developing Xenopus retina. Differentiation 72, 239-249.
  5. Garriock, R. J. and Drysdale, T. A. (2003). Regulation of heart size in Xenopus laevis. Differentiation 71, 1-10.
  6. Duan, L. J., Broomfield, J. A. S. and Drysdale, T. A. (2003). Expression of Muscle LIM protein during early development in Xenopus laevis. Int J Dev Biol 47, 299-302.
  7. Duan, L-J., George, M. E. and Drysdale T. A. (2002). Developmental Expression of Cardiac Myosin-Binding Protein C in Xenopus. Development, Genes and Evolution 212, 47-49.
  8. Patterson, K. D., Drysdale, T. A., and Krieg, P. A. (2000). Embryonic origins of spleen asymmetry. Development 127: 167-175.
  9. Kiss, A., Farah, K., Kim, J., Garriock, R. J., Drysdale, T. A., and Hammond, J. R. (2000) Molecular cloning and functional characterization of inhibitor-sensitive (mENT1) and inhibitor-resistant (mENT2) equilibrative nucleoside transporters from mouse brain. Biochem. J. 352, 363-372.
  10. Drysdale, T. A. (1999). Early events of cardiovascular development. Seminars in Neonatology 4: 125-130.
  11. Jiang, Y., Drysdale, T. A., and Evans, T. (1999). A role for GATA-4/5/6 in the regulation of Nkx2.5 expression with implications for patterning of the precardiac field. Developmental Biology 216: 57-71.
  12. Drysdale, T. A., Patterson, K. D., Saha, M., and Krieg, P. A. (1997). Retinoic acid can block differentiation of the myocardium after heart specification. Developmental Biology 188: 205-215.