Highlight Publications

Buffry, A.D., Kittelmann, S., & McGregor, A.P., 2023. Characterisation of the role and regulation of Ultrabithorax in sculpting fine-scale leg morphology. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 11.

Costello L., Goncalves K., De Los Santos Gomez P., Simpson A., Maltman V., Ritchie P., Tasseff R., Isfort R., Dicolandrea T., Wei X., Määttä A., Karakesisoglou I., Markiewicz E., Bascom C.C., & Przyborski S., 2023. Quantitative morphometric analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic skin ageing in individuals with Fitzpatrick skin types II–III. Experimental Dermatology.

Hughes, J.G., Chisholm, D.R., Whiting, A., Girkin, J.M., & Ambler, Carrie, A., 2023. Bullseye Analysis: A Fluorescence Microscopy Technique to Detect Local Changes in Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Production. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 29, 2.

Jarrin, M., Kalligeraki, A.A., Uwineza, A., Cawood, C.S., Brown, A.P., Ward, E.N., Le K., Freitag-Pohl, S., Pohl, E., Kiss, B., Tapodi, A., & Quinlan, R.A., 2023.  Independent Membrane Binding Properties of the Caspase Generated Fragments of the Beaded Filament Structural Protein 1 (BFSP1) Involves an Amphipathic Helix. Cells, 12, 12.

Law, J.O., Jones, C.M., Stevenson, T., Williamson, T.A., Turner, M.S., Kusumaatmaja, H., & Grellscheid, S.N., 2023. A bending rigidity parameter for stress granule condensates. Science Advances, 9, 20.

Määttä, A., Nixon, R., Robinson, N., Ambler, C.A., Goncalves, K., Maltman, V., & Przyborski, S., 2023. Regulation of epidermal proliferation and hair follicle cycling by synthetic photostable retinoid EC23. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 22, 5.

Stewart, L.J., Hong Y., Holmes I.R., Firth S.J., Ahmed Y., Quinn J., Santos Y., Cobb S.L., Jakubovics N.S., & Djoko, K.Y., 2023. Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide Histatin-5 Does Not Display Zn(II)-Dependent or -Independent Activity against Streptococci. ACS Infectious Diseases, 9, 3.

Uwineza A., Cummins I., Jarrin M., Kalligeraki A.A., Barnard S., Mol M., Degani G., Altomare A.A., Aldini G., Schreurs A., Balschun D., Ainsbury E.A., Dias I.H., Quinlan R.A., 2023. Identification and quantification of ionising radiation-induced oxysterol formation in membranes of lens fibre cells. Advances in Redox Research, 7.

Waite R., Adams C.T., Chisholm D.R., Sims C.H.C., Hughes J.G., Dias E., White E.A., Welsby K., Botchway S.W., Whiting A., Sharples G.J., Ambler C.A., 2023. The antibacterial activity of a photoactivatable diarylacetylene against Gram-positive bacteria, Frontiers in Microbiology, 14.

Young, T.R., Deery, E., Foster, A.W., Martini, M.A., Osman, D., Warren, M.J., & Robinson, N.J., 2023. Two Distinct Thermodynamic Gradients for Cellular Metalation of Vitamin B₁₂. JACS Au, 3, 5.

Zavagno G., Raimundo A., Kirby A., Saunter C., Weinkove D., 2024. Rapid measurement of ageing by automated monitoring of movement of C. elegans populations. GeroScience, 46(2), 2.

People

Professor Carrie Ambler, Department of Biosciences & LightOX

Areas of Expertise: Animal Cells and Systems 

Research Interests: Collaborative, multi-disciplinary approaches to tackling wound repair, cancer and antimicrobial resistance.

Dr Robert Banks, Department of Biosciences      

Areas of Expertise: Neurobiology, Structure and Function of Sensory Receptors in Muscle

Research Interests

• Mechanosensory transduction
• The role of synaptic-like vesicles in the sensory endings of mechanoreceptors
• The roles and importance of mitochondria in mechanosensory nerve endings, and why they are so abundant in them

Dr Aakash Basu, Department of Biosciences       

Areas of Expertise: Biomolecular Interactions, Genomics, Single-molecule Biophysics 

Research Interests

• Deciphering the mechanical code of the genome and epigenome
• Understanding how sequence-encoded mechanical properties of DNA encode regulatory information.

Professor Adam Benham, Department of Biosciences    

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology         

Research Interests

• Oxidative folding of secretory proteins in the Endoplasmic Reticulum 
• Protein chaperone function
• Antigen processing and presentation by the immune system

Professor Tim Blower, Department of Biosciences           

Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Genomics, Biochemistry, X-ray Crystallography 

Research Interests

• Toxin-antitoxin systems
• Bacteriophage-resistance
• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Bacteriophage biology
• Phage defence 

Professor Martin Cann, Department of Biosciences                       

Areas of Expertise: Biochemistry

Research Interests

• Carbon dioxide sensing 
• Bacterial death 

Dr Paul Chazot, Department of Biosciences & Nevrargenics

Areas of Expertise: Neuroscience, Chronic Pain, Pharmacology 

Research Interests: Identifying and validating novel drug targets and prodromal bio- and behavioural-markers for a range of common chronic neurological and metabolic pathologies.  

Dr Peter Chivers, Department of Biosciences      

Areas of Expertise: Bioinorganic Chemistry 

Research Interests: Molecular determinants of microbial metal homeostasis.  

Dr Vincent Croset, Department of Biosciences   

Areas of Expertise: Neurobiology, (Single-cell) Transcriptomics, Behaviour 

Research Interests: Effects of nutritional state and drugs of abuse on neuronal physiology, gene expression and behaviour.

Dr Timothy Davies, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Cell Division 

Research Interests

• Variation in cell division requirements
• elegans development
• Cytoskeletal structure and dynamics 

Professor Paul Denny, Department of Biosciences           

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology, Parasitology, Lipid Biochemistry               

Research Interests

• Protozoan sphingolipid biosynthesis
• Antileishmanial therapeutic discovery
• Antileishmanial mode of action deconvolution
• Molecular diagnostics for protozoan infections 

Dr Karrera Djoko, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Metals in Biology 

Research Interests

• The impact of metal availability on microbial physiology
• How microbes respond to changing metal availability
• How host organisms influence metal availability to host-associated microbes

Dr David Doupé, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Stem Cells, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Drosophila melanogaster 

Research Interests

• Epithelial stem cell regulation 
• Stem cell live intravital imaging 
• Epithelial homeostasis and ageing 

Dr Tim Hawkins, Department of Biosciences       

Areas of Expertise: Molecular Cell Biology

Research Interests

• Combining high-resolution imaging with mechanical manipulation and modelling in both animal and plants cells
• Characterisation of members of the NET family of plant actin binding proteins which link the actin cytoskeleton to district membrane compartments 

Dr Akis (Iakowos) Karakesisoglou, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Animal Cell Biology, Disease

Research Interests

• Linker of the Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton complex (LINC) cell biology 
• The role of the cytoskeleton and spectrin-family of proteins in cell architecture and disease 
• Breast cancer and skin mechanobiology 
• Breast cancer diagnostics 
• Premature (HGPS) and physiological human ageing (emphasis on skin and epithelial cell biology [RPE, Hepatocyte, breast, intestine]) 
• Laminopathies, nesprinopathies, muscle disorders, motor neuron disease (ALS) and Alzheimer’s 

Professor Heather Knight, Department of Biosciences    

Areas of Expertise: Molecular Plant Cell Biology 

Research Interests

• The roles of genes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that determine the plant’s level of tolerance to freezing stress
• Physical and mechanical properties of plants that determine freezing resistance

Professor Marc Knight, Department of Biosciences          

Areas of Expertise: Plant Molecular Cell Biology, Plant Signalling                

Research Interests: How stress information is encoded in calcium responses and how this is decoded by plants to produce the appropriate survival response. 

Professor Keith Lindsey, Department of Biosciences       

Areas of Expertise: Plant Molecular Cell Biology, Plant Signalling 

Research Interests: Identification of plant intracellular signalling molecules - roots and development 

Dr Junli Liu, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Systems biology  

Research Interests: Hormone and Calcium Signalling in Plants. 

Professor Alistair McGregor, Department of Biosciences

Areas of Expertise: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Animal Cells and Systems 

Research Interests

• Genetic regulation of development, 
• Morphological evolution in animals, 
• Genome evolution and duplicated gene fate, 
• The evolution and specificity of Wnt ligands 

Dr Liz Morris, Department of Biosciences             

Areas of Expertise: Structural biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Virology 

Research Interests

• Enzyme mechanisms
• Protein-protein and protein-nucleotide interactions involved in virus replication 

Dr Patricia Muller, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Biochemistry, Metalloproteins, p53, Cancer, Cell Engulfment  

Research Interests

• Role of metals in regulating p53 function
• Mutant p53 function in cancer 

Professor Stefan Przyborski, Department of Biosciences & Reprocell

Areas of Expertise: Bioengineering Human Tissues, Development and Translation of Advanced Cell Technologies, Cell and Tissue Differentiation in Health and Disease, 3Rs – Developing Alternatives for Animals in Research 

Research Interests

• Human cell culture and building tissue equivalents 
• Design and application of cell culture plasticware 
• Bioreactor development and construction 
• Device design and prototyping 
• Cell and tissue differentiation methods 
• Cell / tissue imaging and molecular analysis 
• Commercialisation of technology and company development/operation 
• Working at the industrial interface 

Dr Susan Pyner, Department of Biosciences        

Areas of Expertise: Signalling and Animal Cell Systems 

Research Interests

• Autonomic regulation and neuroanatomy
• Tracing studies and immunocytochemical analysis of brain regions involved in cardiovascular homeostasis

Professor Nigel Robinson, Department of Biosciences    

Areas of Expertise: Cell Biology of Metals 

Research Interests

• Protein metalation 
• Metal homeostasis 
• Industrial biotechnology 

Professor Ari Sadanandom, Department of Biosciences 

Areas of Expertise: Molecular Plant Sciences 

Research Interests: Polypeptide tags: Protein Modification systems such as Small Ubiquitin-like MOdifiers (SUMO) and their roles in plants' resilience under a changing climate. 

Dr Gary Sharples, Department of Biosciences     

Areas of Expertise: Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

Research Interests

• Antibacterial mechanism of action of chelating agents, clay minerals, antibacterial surfaces and other novel antibacterial compounds.
• Bacteriophage recombinases

Dr David Weinkove, Department of Biosciences & Magnitude Biosciences

Areas of Expertise: Animal Cells and Systems, Ageing, Microbiome, Automated Analysis of Ageing

Research Interests: Study of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans to gain insights into basic biological processes such as ageing and host:microbe interactions.