Smith Group

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Pluripotent stem cell biology

Pluripotency is the flexibility of single cells to generate all cell types of the animal. This cellular plasticity is the foundation of mammalian development. In the embryo pluripotency is dynamic and short-lived, but in vitro pluripotent stem cells can be established and multiplied without limit. The most pristine type of pluripotent stem cell exists in a naive  state, as in the pre-implantation embryo. To execute their potential for differentiation, naive cells must gain lineage competence, a process termed formative transition.

We seek to understand:

1. how the regulatory machinery of pluripotency is adapted between different mammals
2. how pluripotent cells transition between states of competence and how fate decisions are made
3. how potency and competence are encoded in a dynamic regulatory system of chromatin, transcription factors and intercellular signalling

Recent papers:

• Inhibition of PRC2 enables self-renewal of blastoid-competent naive pluripotent stem cells from chimpanzee: Cell Stem Cell
• Propagating pluripotency – The conundrum of self‐renewal – Smith – BioEssays – Wiley Online Library
• Branching topology of the human embryo transcriptome revealed by Entropy Sort Feature Weighting | Development | The Company of Biologists
• ERK signalling eliminates Nanog and maintains Oct4 to drive the formative pluripotency transition | Development | The Company of Biologists

Further information on the Smith Group: Profile | Living Systems Institute | University of Exeter

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Postdoc Opportunities

If you are motivated by fundamental questions and have a fearless approach to scientific enquiry, I would be delighted to hear from you austin.smith@exeter.ac.uk

PhD Opportunities

China Scholarship Council Studentships – 中国国家留学基金委和英国埃克塞特大学合作奖学金（博士生项目）

Project Title: Naive pluripotent stem cells and germ cells from livestock animals
Lead Supervisor: Professor Austin Smith
Second Supervisor: Dr Ge Guo

In this project you will work with the first naive pluripotent stem cells from sheep and cattle recently established in our laboratory. The main focus of the project will be to direct differentiation into primordial germ cells (PGCs) for in vitro breeding applications. The research will involve stem cell culture and differentiation, generation of reporter lines, signalling manipulations, flow cytometry, imaging and multi-modal ‘omics with associated bioinformatics analyses.

It is also possible to propose your own idea for a CSC Studentship project.

Please send your statement of interest along with CV to austin.smith

Further information and application details: CSC Scholarships | Postgraduate Study – PhD and Research Degrees | University of Exeter.

Deadline: Monday 1 December 2025