Previous Seminars
ICaMB Seminar - Dr Sveta Makovets
- Venue: Baddiley-Clark Seminar Room
- Start: Wed, 16 May 2018 13:00:00 BST
- End: Wed, 16 May 2018 14:00:00 BST
Telomeres are the natural ends of eukaryotic chromosomes maintained by the enzyme telomerase. Telomeres are evolutionarily conserved from unicellular organisms to humans and important for chromosome integrity. Most human cells express very little telomerase and due to the resultant telomerase insufficiency our telomeres become shorter with age. On one hand, the developmentally programmed telomerase insufficiency protects us from cancer but on the other – the short telomeres at the advanced age have been linked to impaired tissue homeostasis, wound healing and immune response. Mutations in human telomerase genes result in accelerated telomere shortening, developmental syndromes and cancer predisposition. Therefore, studying how cells deal with telomerase insufficiency and critically short telomeres is important for our understanding of human disease and ageing. Sveta's' lab has established experimental systems to study telomerase insufficiency in budding yeast. While complete telomerase loss can be bypassed only by a switch to recombination-dependent telomere maintenance, the presence of low amounts of telomerase inhibits this switch and telomerase insufficiency can be bypassed through a particular type of aneuploidy. In these aneuploids, downregulation of ribosome biogenesis leads to upregulation of the pools of non-ribosomal proteins and RNA, including some of the components of telomerase. Molecular insights and the broader significance of this mechanisms will be discussed during the seminar.
PhD (1996-9) - with Noreen Murray in Edinburgh on Proteolysis-dependent regulation of type I restriction-modification systems (E.coli).
Postdoc (2000-2008) - with Ira Herskowitz and Liz Blackburn at UCSF, work on telomere replication, survivor formation and regulation of telomerase in cells with DNA damage.
PI (since 2009 in Edinburgh) - interests in DNA repair and telomerase regulation.
If you would like to meet Sveta during her visit please contact David Lydall to be added to her schedule: david.lydall@ncl.ac.uk