Chiara Maniaci opens laboratory in the MRC PPU

Chiara completed her PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2017 at the School of Life Sciences Dundee and in January 2018 joined the research groups of Professor Chris Schofield and Professor Akane Kawamura at University of Oxford to investigate new molecular mechanisms of epigenetic processes. In February 2020, Chiara was awarded a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship and moved to Newcastle University shortly after, where she started her independent career working on protein post-translational modifications.  

Chiara plans to undertake a chemical biology approach to uncover and study new mechanisms involved in Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like biology. 

Chiara stated "I am incredibly thrilled and honoured to establish my research group within the MRC-PPU at the University of Dundee. The world-class, collaborative community of scientists within the School of Life Sciences and wider University will be a perfect environment for my research. My lab will focus on understanding how cells expand the complexity of their proteome because of a previously unrecognised “cleave-to-modify” mechanism. This mechanism involves the processing of Ubiquitin-like-domain containing proteins to enable their further modification to regulate protein biological function. I look forward to all the exciting discovery and collaborations that will arise from being part of such a thriving community."

Dario Alessi Director of the MRC PPU stated "We are excited to host Chiara - the work she is planning to undertake to decipher "cleave to modify" machinery and dissect their biological roles using a chemical approach is highly original. Chiara's appointment further strengthens our Units expertise around chemical and ubiquitin biology and could lead to the identification of novel post translational modifications and ways to study these."