School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health

Speaker - Professor Julain Dow, University of Glasgow, SMB 

Where/When - 12th February at 1pm, Hunterian Art Gallery 103LT

Title- Functional genomics and molecular genetics of insects : model systems for renal function and peptided-based bioinsecticides. 

Bio- Julian graduated with a double first in Natural sciences from the University of Cambridge, where he continued to do a PhD in Zoology. He then took a Harkness fellowship to the USA, to research the physiology and biochemistry of ion transport at Temple University, Philedelphia. After returning to a research fellowship in Cambridge, he was appointed initially to a lectureship in Cell Biology at the University of Glasgow and was promoted to Professor of Molecular and integrated Physiology in 1999. He served as Head of Division of Molecular Genetics. as a member and chair of Multiple UKRI and international panels; and was elected FRSE in 2007. Struck by the extraordinary biodiversity of insects, and to address the basic question "How are insects so sucsessful?" Julian's research has combined physiology, biophysics, molecular genetics and post-genomic technologies, the latest being single cell transcriptomics. This research, in turn, has led to useful models for human renal function and metabolic diseases and (with his long-term collaborator Shireen Davies) to co-founding the SOLASTA bio, a company designing and developing selective , peptide-based insect control for global agriculture. 

Speaker - Dr Francesca Ester Morreale, The Francis Crick Institute

Where/When- 26th March at 1pm, Yudowitz LT

Title-  Enabling targeted protein degradation in bacteria. 

Bio- Ester obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Messina (Italy). She later joined Prof Walden's research group at the MRC PPU (Dundee, UK) for a firstdoc postdoc, in collaboration with Prof Alessio Ciulli. She then moved to Vienna (Austria), for a second postdoc in Dr Tim Clausen's group at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) . In 2023 Ester joined the Francis Crick Institute as a group leader. Her research group focuses on establishing targeted protein degradation technology in bacteria. 

Speaker - Dr Joanna Rorbach, Karolinska institute

Where/When -26th of February at 1pm, The Huntarian art Gallery 103LT

Title - Regulation of mitochondrial gene expression: from fundemental understanding to the development of new therapies.

Bio- Dr Rorbach obtained a PhD degree in mitchondial genetics from Newcastle University, UK. From 2009-2016 she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge, investigating the long-unresolved problem of mitochondrial transformation. As a postdocotral researcher, she also assited in the development of targeted zinc-finger nuclease technology to selectively remove deleterious mitochondrial mutation and extended her studies of mitochondrial genome. In 2017, she estanlished her reseach group at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing  - Karolinska Institute Laboratory in Stockholm. She has extensive experience in investigating molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial gene expression and has been involved in the characterisation of several novel of disease-associated genes. Her research employs multidisciplinary approaches, including high-throuhput gene targeting, proteomics and cryo-EM methods, to understand molecular pathways involved in mitochondiral pathologies. 

 

Speaker - Dr Clarissa Melo Czekster, University of St Andrews

Where/When- 29th January at 1pm, The Huntarian Art Gallery 103LT

Title - Mechanism and structure of enzyme producing the smallest and most common cyclic peptides in nature. 

Bio- I am from Porto Algere (Brazil), where I earned a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Biochemistry. Following a PhD from Alber Einstein College of Medicine (US), focused on mechanism- based inhibitors targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis, I did a postdoc at Yale University on an engineered translational machinery aimed at peptide-nased theaputics. In 2015, I moved to the UK for a second postdoc at St Andrews, working on the chemical and structural biology of enzymes participating in cyclic peptide biosynthesis. I established my lab in St Andrews in 2018 as s Wellcome Trust Sir Henery Dale Fellow. 

Research in my group is focused on hijacking bacterial pathways to produce peptide variants that can disrupt biofilms. 

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First published: 17 January 2025