Supervisors: Professor Brian Morgan and Dr Simon Whitehall

My general research interests include protein modification and cellular signalling pathways, in particular the mechanisms of enzyme regulation during these signalling pathways. I completed my undergraduate degree (MSci Biochemistry with honours) at the University of Manchester, where I graduated in 2018. I completed an integrated 8 month lab-based master’s project in Dr Patrick Caswell’s lab, where I focused on the role of Rab proteins and their interacting partners on ovarian cancer cell migration. I then moved to Newcastle to start my PhD using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system to investigate signal transduction in response to reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress.

Project Title : Investigation of responses to oxidative stress

Cells are exposed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) from internal processes such as respiration, or from environmental sources. High levels of ROS cause oxidative stress, damaging many cellular components such as DNA, proteins and lipids, and as a consequence oxidative stress has been linked to the pathology of many age-related diseases. In contrast, low levels of ROS have been found to perform vital roles in cellular signalling, regulating processes such as the cell cycle. Therefore, it is essential that cells are able to distinguish both the type and levels of ROS in order to elicit an appropriate response. Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like (Ubl) proteins are reversible protein modifications that regulate many essential cellular processes. Interestingly, many of the enzymes involved in regulating these dynamic post-translational modifications utilise catalytic cysteine residues, raising the possibility that these pathways function in ROS sensing mechanisms. My project builds on previous studies in the lab in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae which supports this hypothesis and follows on investigation of the regulation of specific enzymes in these pathways by ROS.

Other Activities

I presented a poster at the 2019 British Yeast Group (BYG) annual conference.