Monthly Seminar Program
Guest Speakers:
Professor Vicky Buchanan-Wollaston
Dr. Katherine Denby
Dr. Till Bretschneider
Research Fellow Speaker:
Dr. Chris Penfold
Phd Speakers:
Emily Breeze
Lesley Foster
Anthony Knight
October 12, 2012
Seminar program
Time
13:10-14:00
Session
Guest speaker
Location
MOAC Seminar room
14:00-14:50
Lunch
Common room
14:50-16:00
3 Phd Presentations
Phd presentations consist 15 minute talks (including questions) audience rotates between
three rooms
Emily Breeze
Lesley Foster
Anthony Knight
MOAC Seminar Room
WSB 325
WSB 336
16:00-16:20
Break
Common room
16:20-16:45
Research Fellow talk
Christopher A Penfold
MOAC Seminar room
Wine and Cheese
Common room
16:45
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Presentation Description
Guest Speaker Session
Introduction to the seminar series followed by three short talks from Vicky
Buchanan-Wollaston, Katherine Denby and Till Bretschneider on their take
on Systems Biology and how it applies to their research.
Research Fellow Session
Christopher A Penfold
Is a research fellow working on the PRESTA project, which aims to identify a
core stress-response network in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana using systems biology. His research includes developing methods for analysing
genome scale time series data, including network inference algorithms that
can learn from multiple (time-series) datasets.
Phd Session 1:
Emily Breeze
Action of NF-Y transcription factors in plant stress responses
Global food security is one of the prominent challenges facing mankind
in a world of increasing population and changing climate. Environmental
stresses, such as drought, high salinity and pathogen attack, cause significant crop losses worldwide. Consequently, plants have evolved complex and
highly regulated stress response mechanisms. Although there are certainly
stimuli-specific pathways, many genes appear to be induced by multiple
stresses supporting the existence of a common core stress response transcriptional network. The PRESTA project aims to elucidate this stressresponsive regulatory network.
The NF-Y (Nuclear Factor Y) transcription factor family are likely key
regulators in multiple stress responses. NF-Y functions as a heterotrimeric
complex consisting of NF-YA, NF-YB and NF-YC subunits which, in Arabidopsis, are encoded by multigene families that could theoretically combine
into 1690 unique TFs. This combinatorial diversity could enable fine-tuning
of transcriptional regulation by activating specific groups of stress-responsive
genes.
My project aims to identify functional NF-Y complexes involved in regulating plant stress responses and to elucidate the direct downstream targets
and upsteam regulators. I am currently using network inference, together
with yeast-1 and 2-hybrid assays and microarray analysis of altered expression mutants to generate and test small-scale networks centred around a
subset of key regulatory NF-Y subunits.
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Phd Session 2:
Lesley Foster
Alternative Splicing in Plant Defence
Alternative splicing in plants is emerging as a key component of posttranscriptional control, fine tuning gene expression and increasing proteome
complexity. Understanding the mechanisms behind AS may enable plant
engineering to be carried out at the finer level of post translational control,
enabling production of plants with increased disease resistance and helping
to maintain food security in the 21st century.
Following on from completion of my mini project in this area I will
discuss problem encounters and how I plan to build on this work during my
Phd.
Phd Session 3:
Anthony Knight
Modelling the kinetics of GPCR pharmacology
The ability of cells to perceive and respond to changes in their microenviroment is an essential prerequisite of life. Many extracellular signals are
detected through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that couple to hetertrimeric G proteins consisting of a Gα, Gβ and a Gγ. Stimulation of a
GPCR causes dissociation of the heterotrimeric G protein and regulation
of downstream effectors to bring about a myriad of responses. G proteins,
and the downstream pathways activated are defined by their Gα subunit.
GPCRs can couple to various G proteins and which G protein is activated
can be influenced by ligand. This is termed functional selectivity and is of
growing interest to the pharmaceutical industry.
Understanding the kinetic processes of functional selectivity can help
design more specific drugs with fewer side effects. However studying this
effect in mammalian cells is difficult due to cross talk between many signalling pathways and shared components. To study functional selectivity
in individual GPCR-Gα interactions we turn to a simple model system, the
Saccharomyces cerevisiae pheromone response. Through altering the five Cterminal amino acids of the Sc. cerevisiae pheromone response we can study
a mammalian GPCR-Gα interaction without the complexity of mammalian
systems.
Using a Systems Biology approach we can elucidate the kinetic parameters of GPCR pharmacology. Through computationally modelling these
chimeric yeast strains and fitting to the experimental data of a number of
mammalian GPCRs we can determine kinetic parameters that we cannot
measure directly. Our initial studies focus on the adenosine receptor family.
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