School of Life Sciences events archive

October

27 Oct - ‘Structural and mechanistic insights of GID E3 ubiquitin ligase’

Dawa Sherpa - PhD candidate Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry Munich

Hosts: Dr. Yogesh Kulathu and Dr. Kirby Swatek, MRC PPU

20 Oct - Discovery Seminar - ‘How DNA Replication Initiates and What Happens When it Goes Wrong’

Professor John Diffley - Francis Crick Institute

Host: Professor Karim Labib FRSE, MRC PPU with Gene Regulation and Expression

September

12 Sep - The Bridget Ogilvie Lecture 2022 ‘T cell immunity and protection against SARS-CoV-2’

Professor Paul Moss - Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham

Host: Professor Simon Arthur, Cell Signalling and Immunology

1 Sep - 'Oncogenic PI3Kα corrupts the temporal encoding of growth factor signals'

Dr Ralitsa Madsen - Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow, University College London Cancer Institute

Host: Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci

August

26 Aug - BacPROTACs mediate targeted protein degradation in bacteria.

Dr Ester Morreale - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna

Host: Professor Alessio Ciulli FRSC, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

25 Aug - "ISG15 in host cellular response to virus infection"

Dr Sumana Sanyal - University of Oxford

Host: Dr Kirby Swatek, MRC PPU

8 Aug - ‘Understanding the influence of the airway environment on the bacterial commensal-pathogen switch’

Dr Daniel Neill - University of Liverpool

Host: Professor Julian Blow FRSE FMedSci

July

26 Jul - 'Deciphering cancer evolution for patient benefit'

Dr Samra Turajlic - Chief Investigator of translational studies into melanoma and kidney cancer (TRACERx) The Francis Crick Institute

18 Jul - ‘Proteostasis in the ER: A tale of two Ubs

Professor Ron Kopito - Stanford University

Host: Dr. Yogesh Kulathu, MRC PPU

June

30 Jun - "Cell division in an epithelium: how cells break free without breaking the tissue apart"

Eurico Sa - University of Porto

Host: Dr Jens Januschke, Cell and Developmental Biology

24 Jun - Dundee Cell Signalling Lecture : ‘Mechanism of ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD)’

Dr Tom Rapoport - Harvard Medical School

Hosts: Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci and Professor Karim Labib FRSE, MRC PPU 

21 Jun - ‘Unravelling the structure of toxic protein aggregates in situ’

Professor Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego - University Medical Center Goettingen

Host: Professor Miratul Muqit FRSE, MRC PPU

16 Jun - "Bacterial odours: A tale of pathogen recognition and innate immunity in Caenorhabditis elegans"

Dr Varsha Singh - Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

15 Jun - "Priming the NLRP3 inflammasome"

Dr Jelena Bezbradica Mirkovic - University of Oxford

Host: Professor Simon Arthur, Cell Signalling and Immunology

10 Jun - Peter Garland Lecture 2022 - ‘How cells export proteins and RNA’

Professor Randy Schekman - University of California, Berkeley

Hosts: Professor Claire Halpin FRSE FRSB and Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci, MRC PPU

May

30 May - EMBL in the UK 2022: Translating Discovery into Impact

Hosts: Professor Sir Mike Ferguson CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB and Professor Angus Lamond FRS FRSE FMedSci

16 May - "The ins and outs of cellular quiescence".

Alexis Barr - MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences

Host: Dr Tony Ly, Gene Regulation and Development

9 May - “Cholesterol metabolism is a new tool to control inflammation”

Dr Esperanza Perucha - Kings College, London

Hosts: Professor Simon Arthur, Cell Signalling and Immunology and Dr. Mahima Swamy, MRC PPU

9 May - "Adaptations to airway microenvironments in Streptococcus pneumoniae "

Daniel Neill - University of Liverpool

3 May - "Controlling in vivo drug transport - a role for pharmaceutical nanotechnology"

Professor Ijeoma F. Uchegbu HonFRSC, FMedSci - Chair in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience UCL School of Pharmacy

Host: Professor Sir Mike Ferguson CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

April

28 Apr - ‘Colorectal Cancer Prevention Research’

Dr Farhat Din - Consultant colorectal surgeon at the Western General Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Edinburgh University

Host: Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci, MRC PPU

26 Apr - "Targeting mRNA modifications to eradicate cancer stem cells in acute myeloid leukaemia"

Professor Kamil R Kranc - Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London

Host: Dr Kasper Rasmussen, Gene Regulation and Expression

25 Apr - “Epithelial-gd T cell conversations in development and tissue residency”

Dr Leticia Monin - Crick Institute

Host: Dr. Mahima Swamy, MRC PPU with Cell Signalling and Immunology

18 Apr - "Understanding the mechanism of chromosome segregation: lessons from diversity"

Dr Bungo Akiyoshi - Dept of Biochemistry, University of Oxford

Host: Professor David Horn FRSE, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery with Gene Regulation and Expression

14 Apr - “Cleave to modify: shining light on the dark proteome”

Dr Chiara Maniaci - University of Newcastle

Host: Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci, MRC PPU

11 Apr - "Integral membrane pyrophsophatases and the acidocalcisome for structure-based drug discovery"

Prof Adrian Goldman - University of Helsinki

1 Apr - “Linkage between local inflammation and TGFβ activity as an orchestrator of tissue homeostasis”

Dr Dietmar Zaiss - University of Edinburgh

Host: Dr Henry McSorley, Cell Signalling and Immunology

March

29 Mar - "Cryptosporidiosis - a perspective from Africa"

Prof Paul Kelly - Professor of Tropical Gastroenterology, Barts & The London School of Medicine, UK

29 Mar - ‘Epithelial Transitions – Mechanisms of Cell Lineage Specification and Plasticity’

Professor Ian Macara - Vanderbilt University Nashville 

Host: Dr Jens Januschke, Cell and Developmental Biology

22 Mar - ‘Multidisciplinary approaches for development of targeted protein degraders’

Dr Radoslaw Nowak - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Host: Professor Julian Blow FRSE FMedSci for Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

14 Mar - "Management of metal ions during host-microbe interactions."

Karrera Djoko - University of Durham

7 Mar - ‘Ubiquitination and Autophagy in health and disease’

Professor Ivan Đikić - Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

Host: Dr. Virginia De Cesare, MRC PPU

1 Mar - ‘Spatial and metabolic regulation of hematopoietic progenitors in BM’

Stefano Comazzetto - University of Texas Southwestern

Host: Dr Kasper Rasmussen, Gene Regulation and Expression

February

28 Feb - EGF-Induced Desialylation Controls Glycolipid-Lectin Dependent Endocytosis

Dr Ewan Macdonald - Institut Curie

Host: Dr David Murray, Cell and Developmental Biology 

22 Feb - 'The role of synapse complexity and diversity in health and disease’

Professor Seth Grant, Professor Seth Grant

Host: Professor Carol MacKintosh FRSB, Cell and Developmental Biology

18 Feb - "Computer modelling of twitching bacteria"

Daniel Barton - Institute of Physics, The Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing

Host: Dr Rastko Sknepnek, Computational Biology

17 Feb - "Understanding neutrophil influence on T cell function."

Dr Emily Gwyer Findlay - Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Host: Dr Henry McSorley, Cell Signalling and Immunology

3 Feb - "Childhood cancer epigenetic drug development and clinical trials"

Dr Charles Keller, - Scientific Director and Chief Mission Officer, Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute, Oregon, USA

Host: Professor Alessio Ciulli FRSC, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

January 

12 Jan - “Multidisciplinary approaches in development of targeted protein degraders”

Radoslaw Nowak - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

December

9 Dec - ‘How cells defend their cytosol against bacteria: Ubiquitylation of LPS and other tricks’

Dr Felix Randow - MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Host: Dr. Virginia De Cesare, MRC PPU

8 Dec - “Life after Dundee, a career in Pharma, Biotech and Venture Capital Investment”

Simon Tate - Managing Director of Life Sciences at Intermediate Capital Group plc

Host: Professor Sir Philip Cohen FRS FRSE FAA FFMedSci, MRC PPU

6 Dec - "Evolution of microbial interactions in the context of chronic disease "

Professor Deborah Hogan - Geisel Schol of Medicine at Dartmouth University, Hanover, USA

Host: Division of Molecular Microbiology

1 Dec - “Mitotic chromosome mechanics”

Prof. Daniel Gerlich - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology Vienna, Austria

November

18 Nov - "Heads or Tails: The Regulatory Logic of Cell Identity in the Nervous System"

Dr Vicki Metzis - Imperial College London

Host: Professor Kate Storey FRSE FMedSci FRSB, Cell and Developmental Biology

12 Nov - ‘Structural basis for DUB activity and inhibition in immune signalling’

Elton Zeqiraj - University of Leeds

Host: Dr. Yogesh Kulathu, MRC PPU

8 Nov - "How do you build a wall? Understanding biophysical principles of bacterial cell division using advanced light microscopy "

Dr Séamus Holden - University of Newcastle

Host: Dr Helge Dorfmueller, Molecular Microbiology

5 Nov - “Rigidity percolation uncovers a structural basis for embryonic tissue phase transitions”

Dr Edouard Hannezo - Institute of Science and Technology Austria

Host: Dr Rastko Sknepnek, Computational Biology

2 Nov - "Chemical probes for imaging proteases and hydrolyses involved in cancer and infectious diseases"

Dr Matthew Bogyo - Stanford University School of Medicine

Host: Professor Ian Gilbert FMedSci FRSE FRSC, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

October

26 Oct - "TBC"

Dr Elisa Granato - University of Oxford

Host: Division of Molecular Microbiology

15 Oct - “Slimming down through frustration”

Martin Lenz - Université Paris Sud

Host: Dr Rastko Sknepnek, Computational Biology

1 Oct - “Towards improved biophysical models of protein folding to identify disease-causing mutations”

Professor Kresten Lindorff-Larsen - Structural Biology and NMR Laboratory Linderstrøm-Lang Centre for Protein Science University of Copenhagen

September 

24 Sep - “Using big data to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer.”

Dr Frances Pearl - University of Sussex

Host: Professor Geoff Barton FRSE FRSB, Computational Biology

17 Sep - ‘Mining Understudied Kinases for Novel Targets in Squamous Cell Carcinomas’

Pedro Torres-Ayuso - Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signalling National Cancer Institute Frederick, Maryland

Host: Professor Dario Alessi FRS FRSE FMedSci, MRC PPU

10 Sep - "Contrasting dynamics of pandemic and non-pandemic Vibrio cholerae"

Dr Matt Dorman - Sanger Institute

Host: Professor Sarah Coulthurst, Molecular Microbiology

9 Sep - "Why so many ways to Die?"

Dr Vishva Dixit - Genentech

August 

24 Aug - Discovery Lecture - " Computationally designing therapeutic antibodies - learning from the natural immune repertoire"

Professor Charlotte Deane - University of Oxford

Host: Professor Geoff Barton FRSE FRSB, Computational Biology

July

26 Jul - 2021 Virtual Vacation Scholarship Seminar Series: ‘12 years a scientist’

Dr Tom Deegan – MRC HGU, Edinburgh

Host: Dr Paul Davies, MRC PPU

20 Jul - Discovery Lecture - "Decoding the developing human immune system"

Professor Muzlifah Haniffa - Newcastle University

Host: Professor Tom Owen-Hughes FRSE, Gene Regulation and Expression

15 Jul - ‘CDK1, the other 'master regulator' of autophagy’

Dr Simon Cook - The Babraham Institute

Host: Dr. Thomas Williams, MRC PPU

8 Jul - "Chromatin Conformation during Early Embryonic Development"

Professor Juan Vaquerizas - Imperial College London

Host: Dr Leeanne McGurk, Cell and Developmental Biology

5 Jul - “From London to Dundee via Seattle!”

2021 Virtual Vacation Scholarship Seminar Series: Professor Sir Philip Cohen - MRC-PPU

Host: Dr Paul Davies, MRC PPU

June

18 Jun - “Bayesian inference of clonal expansions in a dated phylogeny”

David Helekal 

16 Jun - "Immunopeptidomics as discovery tool for clinically relevant antigens"

Dr Nicola Ternette - Oxford

Host: Gene Regulation and Expression/ Cell Signalling and Immunology

9 Jun - "Developing chemical biology probes to uncover the antibiofilm mechanism of action of cyclic dipeptides"

Dr Clarissa Melo Czekster - University of St Andrews

Host: Dr. Megan Bergkessel, Molecular Microbiology

4 Jun - “Streamlined use of 3D structures in protein analysis: Applications to SARS-CoV-2 and beyond”

Dr Seán O'Donoghue -

Host: Professor Geoff Barton FRSE FRSB, Computational Biology

May

27 May - “Our first choices: decoding signals during developmental transitions”

Dr Silvia Santos - The Francis Crick Institute

Host: Professor Kate Storey FRSE FMedSci FRSB, Cell and Developmental Biology

21 May - “Adventures in Bioinformatics: from minimal genomes to virus pathogenicity and myosin evolution”

Dr Mark Wass

Host: Professor Geoff Barton FRSE FRSB, Computational Biology

14 May - "What can we learn about predatory bacteria using structural biology?"

Andrew Lovering - University of Birmingham

Host: Division of Molecular Microbiology

13 May - “Cell migration in gut homeostasis and cancer invasion – role of microenvironment”

Dr Danijela Vignjevic - Institut Curie - Hôpital René Huguenin - Department of Cell Biology

Hosts: Professor Inke Näthke, Cell and Developmental Biology & Dr Rastko Sknepnek, Computational Biology

7 May - “Routes to Commercialisation and Everything in Between…”

Dr Michael Salako - Investment Director, Start Codon

Host: Professor Sir Mike Ferguson CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB, Biological Chemistry & Drug Discovery

6 May - "Rules are for the obedience of fools and guidance of the wise – an objective appraisal of best practices in medicinal chemistry"

Dr Robert Young - Principal Blue Burgundy (Drug Discovery Consulting)

April

27 Apr - "Integrating Heat Shock Molecular Chaperones into the Histone Chaperone Network"

Colin Hammond - NNF CPR - Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen

20 Apr - “Links between diet, the gut microbiota, and health”

Dr Alan Walker - The Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen

20 Apr - "Watching Grass Grow"

Dr Annis Richardson - University of Edinburgh

Host: Dr Sarah McKim, Plant Sciences 

15 Apr - “How tissues take shape: from morphogens to mechanics”

Professor Christian Dahmann - Department of Biology Technische Universität

Host: Dr Jens Januschke, Cell and Developmental Biology

13 Apr - Discovery Lecture: “Neutralising antibody responses in HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 infections"

Dr Katie Doores - Senior Lecturer in the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences at Kings College London

Host: Professor Sir Mike Ferguson CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci FRSB, Biological Chemistry & Drug Discovery

6 Apr - "Synthesis in a Boron World"

Professor Varinder Aggarwal - Alfred Capper Pass Professor of Chemistry and Professor in Synthetic Chemistry, University of Bristol

Host: Dr Gary Tarver, Drug Discovery Unit 

6 Apr - "Multidisciplinary study of molecular mechanisms governing cellular organisation"

Dr. Linas Urnavicius - Rockefeller University

Host: Professor Tom Owen-Hughes FRSE, Gene Regulation and Expression

March

25 Mar - "Targeting RNA/protein and protein/protein interactions for therapeutic development"

Dr May Khanna - The University of Arizona

Host: Dr Leeanne McGurk, Cell and Developmental Biology

16 Mar - Discovery Lecture: ‘Science advice in government at times of stress’

Professor Sir Ian L. Boyd - University of St Andrews

Host: Professor Claire Halpin FRSE FRSB, Plant Sciences

10 Mar - "Protein uptake in bacteria"

Prof Daniel Walker - University of Glasgow

Host: Dr. Megan Bergkessel, Molecular Microbiology

9 Mar - "400 million years of plant root evolution"

Dr Sandy Hetherington - University of Edinburgh

Host: Dr Sarah McKim, Plant Sciences

3 Mar - ‘Fe-eling good – Iron uptake and storage in T. gondii’

Clare Harding -

Host: Dr Mattie Pawlowic, Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research

2 Mar - "Control of plant immunity by ubiquitin and SUMO signalling"

Dr Michael Skelly - University of Edinburgh

Host: Professor Paul Birch FRSE, Plant Sciences

February

22 Feb - "New tricks for an old microbe: exploring developmental innovations in Streptomyces venezuelae"

Professor Marie Elliott - Department of Biology McMaster University, Canada

Host: Professor Nicola Stanley-Wall FRSE FRSB FEAM, Molecular Microbiology

18 Feb - "Photoinduced Assembly of C–N and C–C Bonds"

Professor Daniele Leonori - University of Manchester

Host: Professor Ian Gilbert FMedSci FRSE FRSC, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery

18 Feb - "Effectiveness in the rhizobia-plant symbiosis and modulation by the environment "

Dr Beatriz Lagunas - University of Warwick

Host: Professor Paul Birch FRSE, Plant Sciences

10 Feb - "STAT5A and STAT5B – more than identical twins in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis”

Prof. Veronika Sexl - University of Vienna

Host: Dr. Ignacio Moraga Gonzalez, Cell Signalling and Immunology

January

22 Jan - “Intranuclear phase separation, and its role in transcription and gene regulation”

Dr Davide Meranduzzo

Host: Dr Rastko Sknepnek, Computational Biology

19 Jan - “The immune system of bacteria: Beyond CRISPR”

Professor Rotem Sorek - Weizmann Institute of Science

Host: Professor Sarah Coulthurst, Molecular Microbiology

12 Jan - “Recent advances if virus structure research by cryo-EM”

Professor David Bhella - Structural Virology and Associate Director at the MRC, University of Glasgow

Host: Professor Ian Gilbert FMedSci FRSE FRSC, Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery