Hosts: Gopal Sapkota and Alessio Ciulli

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, SLS

Abstract:

How does the ubiquitin-proteasome system achieve selective protein degradation? The primary specificity determinants are considered to be the E3 ubiquitin ligases, which recognise cognate ‘degron’ motifs found in substrate proteins. However, for the majority of the >600 E3 ligases encoded in the human genome we still have little or no knowledge as to their substrates, and our understanding of degron motifs remains very limited. We seek to exploit the sophisticated genetic tools that are now available for the manipulation of human cells to identify the substrates and degrons recognised by E3 ligases, with the goal of illuminating novel regulatory pathways governing critical cellular processes

 

Bio:

Richard recently started his independent laboratory at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID). The goal of his work is to develop and exploit genetic tools to understand how the ubiquitin-proteasome system achieves selective protein degradation. Richard’s interest in genetics began as a PhD student with Prof. Paul Lehner at the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research, where he developed genetic screens in haploid human cells to study viral E3 ubiquitin ligases. Then, as a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow working in the lab of Prof. Steve Elledge at Harvard Medical School, he discovered a range of novel degradative pathways through which Cullin-RING E3 ligases target degrons located at the extreme N- and C-termini of their substrates. The expression screening techniques that he developed to interrogate E3 ligase-substrate interactions form the basis of work in his new lab.

The ideas and collections of D’Arcy Thompson, the University’s first Professor of Biology, have profoundly influenced many artists and writers who re-interpret natural history, projecting it through the lens of evolution, fantasy, consumption, fear or desire. This unique exhibition features a site-specific installation in the Tower Foyer Gallery with additional elements in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. “Seeing Through” proposes tours of Thompson’s collection visualised as if through the lenses of futurist author J G Ballard and pop-artist Richard Hamilton. We visit the collection through dizzying perspectival renderings of merged organic/machine hybrids, eco-catastrophes and space travel, as alluded to by Hamilton and Ballard. Levy’s speculative exhibition explores our synergistic relationship with technology, including our aspirations and its threats. Our notions of evolution are, themselves, evolving.

Dr Ellen K Levy is a multimedia artist and writer based in the US. Her works explore complex systems and some of the unintended consequences of technology. Levy highlights these issues through exhibitions, educational and curatorial programmes and publications. She was President of the College Art Association before earning her doctorate in 2012 from the University of Plymouth (UK) on the art and neuroscience of attention. She received an AICA award and an arts commission from NASA following a solo exhibition at the National Academy of Sciences (1985) and was represented by Michael Steinberg Fine Arts and Associated American artists in New York until they closed. She has exhibited widely in the US and abroad. With Charissa Terranova, she is co-editor of D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Generative Influences in Art, Design: From Forces to Forms (2021, Bloomsbury Press). Levy and Barbara Larson co-edit the “Science and the Arts since 1750” book series for Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
 

The Tower Foyer Gallery is open Mon-Fri 9.30am-7pm Sat 11am-4pm. Additional elements in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum may be seen on our monthly Saturday openings - 13 April, 11 May and 8 June - and on Friday afternoons from 7 June.
 

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The University of Dundee Museums holds an amazing textile collection acquired from the Needlework Development Scheme 1934-61. For this special workshop event led by textile artists Sheila Mortlock and Dorothy Walker, you can take inspiration from pieces by women designers in the collection to create your own amazing fabric or paper compositions.

You will learn how to manipulate fabrics and textures into artwork - no knowledge of stitching required.

This event is part of Dundee Women's Festival but everyone is welcome to attend. Please meet in the foyer of the Tower Building where you will be directed to the room for the workshop (T8 on the second floor). 

The University of Dundee holds one of Scotland’s leading collections of artists’ books, housed in Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. This special online event will feature illustrated talks from women artists from around the UK and beyond whose work is represented in the collection. They will discuss their work and why the medium of artists' books holds such a fascination for them.

The speakers will be Egidija Ciricaite, Helen Douglas, Imi Maufe and Heather H Yeung. The event will be chaired by Professor Maria Fusco, DJCAD.

The event will be held on Zoom.

Image: Wild Wood by Helen Douglas, 1999

Host: Giulia Saredi 

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, SLS

Abstract: 

DNA methylation occurs at upwards of 80% of CpG sites, catalysed by the de novo DNA methyltransferases DNMT3A and DNMT3B. However, not all CpG sites on the genome are equally methylated, which affects gene expression and subsequent cell fate determination. DNA methylation is inextricably linked to the chromatin environment with targeting conferred by both resident histone marks and direct chromatin interaction. However, few molecular details are available to describe how this process is controlled and balanced on chromatin. 

I will present our recent biochemical and structural work characterising DNMT3A and DNMT3B recruitment and activity on chromatin. Using chemical biology approaches we can reconstitute modified chromatin and recapitulate in vivo binding patterns. We have identified the highly divergent N-terminal regions of DNMT3A and DNMT3B as important for chromatin interaction. 

To ensure robust gene repression DNA methyltransferases must be targeted to heterochromatic regions. We have found this is mediated by the N-terminal regions, but with very different mechanisms utilised for each of the paralogs. Tissue-specific recruitment to facultative heterochromatin of DNMT3A is mediated via direct readout of ubiquitylated H2A, expanding the complexity of the epigenetic recognition found within the DNMT3A enzyme. In contrast DNMT3B N-terminal region does not interact directly with heterochromatin, but with a heterochromatic protein HP1, explaining recruitment to factitive heterochromatin. Furthermore, our biochemical reconstitution shows a disconnect between recruitment and catalytic activity, explaining how epigenetic marks are driven to specific genomic loci during development

 Host: Dr Henry McSorley  

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Abstract 

Communication between our immune system and the extracellular matrix is essential for keeping our tissues healthy and functional. Dysregulation of immune-ECM interactions can be a big factor in contributing to pathogenic changes in the tissue. Therefore, understanding how immune cells and molecules can influence the ECM becomes an important factor in treating disease. In conditions like asthma, inflammation is often a predictor of disease severity. However, using mouse models of mixed Th2/Th17 inflammation, our lab has shown that pathogenic ECM remodelling still occurs in the absence of chronic inflammation. Rather, we have discovered ECM changes are induced and sustained by chitinase-like proteins, immune-associated molecules highly upregulated in inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. I’ll discuss more broadly spatial imaging studies of key immune cells and mediators that play a part in regulating ECM organisation in the lung and why understanding immune-ECM crosstalk may give rise to new ways to modulate pathogenic matrix formation during disease. 

Host: Professor Alessio Ciulli & Dr Calum McLaughlin

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, SLS

This is an in person seminar only

Abstract

My group is generally motivated to develop methods to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin the bioactivity of therapeutics, and to discover new therapeutic opportunities.  We employ highly selective photocatalyzed reactions to understand how critical biological processes are regulated in a cellular environment. This seminar will discuss our efforts to elucidate small molecule mechanism of action.

In many cases, the molecular mechanism behind ligand function remains largely unknown and this lack of mechanistic understanding impedes the development of new, more clinically effective ligands. Specifically, we apply proximity labelling methods driven by visible light to discern the impact a ligand has on important cellular microenvironments, such as the complex interactome displayed by chromatin.

Bio

Ciaran completed his PhD in chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in 2017 under the supervision of Dr Allan Watson studying chemoselective transition-metal catalysis. During this time, he also spent time in the labs of Prof. Tom Snaddon at Indiana University working on total synthesis of complex natural products, and with Prof. Glenn Burley on the development of novel click chemistries for nucleoside bioconjugation.

He then moved to Emory University as a postdoctoral researcher working in the laboratory of Professor Nathan Jui developing novel reductive photoredox methodologies. During this time, Ciaran worked on new synthetic methods to access alkylated heterocycles and complex fluorinated scaffolds.

In 2019, Ciaran moved to Princeton University to work with Professors David MacMillan and Tom Muir where he explored new photocatalytic methods for proximity labelling to investigate critical aspects of cancer biology.

Currently, Ciaran is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Scripps-UF in Jupiter, Florida.

https://www.seathlab.com/

All Welcome

Young people with autism and their circle of support share their perceptions of how Australia’s approach to individualised funding – the National Disability Insurance Scheme, is supporting their transition from school to life after school.

Marie Huska is a Research Assistant with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Centre for Health Policy, Disability and Health Unit, at the University of Melbourne. Marie’s disciplinary background is in nursing and midwifery, including extensive experience working with people marginalised within health and other social systems, particularly people with disability. Since moving into academia in 2020, her focus has been to engage in research examining how the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is working, including at its interface with mainstream systems, to support outcomes across all life domains for people with disability. Marie’s special interest is in research which aims to support health outcomes for autistic young people moving towards their adult life. Marie has recently commenced a PhD examining the NDIS and Primary Health System interface, through the experiences of Autistic youth NDIS participants. 

In 2013 the Australian government launched the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Its purpose: to enable the inclusion of people with disabilities in the social and economic life of our community. NDIS participant data reports autism as the most frequently identified primary disability. Over the next decade, many of these participants will transition from school into their adult life. Evidence indicates that insufficient supports during this period exacerbate the unique developmental, health and mental health challenges often experienced by Autistic youth. To better understand their school to life-after-school transition aspirations and experiences, the research undertaken prioritised the voice of Autistic youth NDIS participants. The aim was to identify how the NDIS may influence these experiences, to inform future NDIS policy and practice. I will identify key government activities completed or in progress since completion of the research and identify where my recently commenced PhD study sits within these activities.

Huska, M., Devine, A. and Naccarella, L., 2023. ‘If there is a Dream there, Don’t Squash it!’: School to Life-after-School Transition Experiences of Autistic Youth within Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme.  International Journal of Educational and Life Transitions,  2(1), p.22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijelt.58

This talk will take place on Microsoft Teams.

As human beings we are all dependent on the land and the resources it provides. Yet we are increasingly becoming disconnected from the natural world around us and our overexploitation of the land is causing an environmental crisis. This thought-provoking exhibition looks at ways in which we have explored, represented and exploited the land and how artists in Scotland have responded to these themes over the years. 

All of the artworks, artefacts and specimens on display come from the University’s Museum Collections. The exhibition is divided into various inter-related themes:

1. Representing the Land
2. Urbanisation, parks and gardens
3. Flora and Fauna
4. Recording the Land
5. Exploiting the Land
6. Returning to Nature
7. Evidence of the Past
8. Environmental Crisis

Open Mon-Fri 9.30am-7pm, Sat 11am-4pm. The Tower Building may close earlier on some weekdays so we advise arriving no later than 5pm.

Easter opening times:

Good Friday 9.30am-5pm 
Easter Saturday 11am-4pm 
Easter Monday 9.30am-5pm

Main image: Ingress by Heather McNab, 2018

Background image: A Highland Loch by John MacWhirter

Find out more about University of Dundee Museums