KENT FUNGAL GROUP - Key Persons
Blake is a Forensic Chemistry with a Year in Industry Graduate from the University of Kent. He carried out a Chemistry Research Masters project jointly advised with Dr. Chris Serpell in the School of Physical Sciences. His research interest is in designing novel templated amyloid fibril self-assemblies in order to control their shape and size.
Chloë worked on a project to understand how molecular chaperones interact with amyloid aggregates and fragment amyloid fibrils to produce small transmissible seeds in the lab between 2016-2017.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Rebecca joined the University of Kent in April 2020 as a lecturer in Microbial Adaptation. Rebecca is an alumnus of the University of Kent having completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr Peter Klappa and Prof Fritz Muhlschlegel in 2007, which investigated how the nematode C. elegans adapts to environmental pH. Rebecca then remained at the University for a postdoctoral position, focusing on how the fungal pathogen Candida albicans adapts to carbon dioxide, a key environmental signal that triggers fungal pathogenesis. Rebecca then moved the University of Aberdeen, to work with Prof Neil Gow on fungal cell wall biosynthesis and innate immunity to fungal infections, before joining the University of Birmingham in 2014 as an independent research fellow funded by a Medical Research Council Career Development Award. Rebecca's team now forms part of the Kent Fungal Group (KFG) and is focused on understanding how pathogenic fungi (Candida, Cryptococcus and Rhizopus) adapt to life within the human host and how, in turn, this adaptation affects the host-pathogen interaction.
Campbell Gourlay began his career at The John Innes Centre in 1996 where he studied the genetic control of leaf development. Following this he began to work with budding yeast as a model eukaryote in the lab of Kathryn Ayscough, where he investigated the role of actin in the process of endocytosis. During this time he discovered a link between actin, the regulation of mitochondrial function and the control of ageing and apoptosis. This led to his involvement in the emerging field of yeast apoptosis, which has popularised the novel concept that unicellular organisms possess the ability to undergo programmed cell death as an altruistic act for the betterment of a population. In 2006 he was awarded a five year MRC Career Development Fellowship to establish his own lab within the Kent Fungal Group at the University of Kent where is now a Reader in Cell Biology. The Gourlay lab maintains a strong interest in the role that actin plays in the control of homeostatic mechanisms that contribute to healthy ageing. The lab also uses yeast as a model eukaryote to study a number of aspects of human disease. The group has also diversified to apply its understanding of yeast stress signalling processes and death to the fields of fungal pathogenesis, drug resistance and to the detection and control of fungal biofilms on medical devices.
Chieh joined School of Biosciences as the Eastern ARC Research Fellow in synthetic biology in March 2015.
Dave originally trained as a chemist worked on a project to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing the mechanical stability of amyloid fibrils. He graduated from lab and obtained his PhD degree in 2016 and is now a postdoctoral researcher working in Prof. Mick Tuite's lab.
Jenny joined the School of Biosciences in September 2014 after conducting postdoctoral research with Prof David Gems (University College London) and Prof Keith Blackwell (Harvard). Prior to that, she obtained her PhD from Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof Malcolm Parker. Jenny's background covers ageing biology, transcriptional regulation and C. elegans genetics. Her research focuses on the molecules and processes that regulate lifespan and influence life-long health.
The Tullet laboratory is interested in understanding the detailed molecular mechanisms via which ageing occurs. Their work uses the nematode worm C. elegans to understand the ageing process (making them honorary members of the KFG as they don't actually use yeast as a model). This amazing, tiny worm (1mm long) lives for 3 weeks in the laboratory and has been vital to our understanding of ageing. It is possible to extend its lifespan either by changing its genetic makeup or by altering the environment in which it is grown. Current research topics include: understanding the roles of transcription factors in the regulation of ageing; deciphering the relationship between diet and lifespan and; examining the role of energy balance in regulating lifespan.
Karen's research project is focusing on the regulation and function of myosin motor proteins. She is always keen to find any excuse to use the lab live cell imaging systems to study biological phenomenon.
Ricardo is a skilled yeast molecular and cell biologist. As a postdoctoral research in the lab between 2012-2016, Ricardo worked on projects to resolve the infectious potential of amyloid particles using yeast prions as a model system. He has since moved city and model system, and he is now working in the University of Cologne on protein aggregation in nematode worm C. elegans.
Tara is currently developing novel ways to simplify methods for isolating proteins off interest from lab culture. She is working with industrial partners to enhance recombinant protein production and purification systems.
What are the mechanisms that govern the formation of amyloid protein structures associated with human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, Prion diseases and systemic amyloidosis? This is a question of fundamental biological importance, and the focus of the research in Dr. Wei-Feng Xue's lab.
Dr Wei-Feng Xue is Senior Lecturer in Chemical biology in the School of Biosciences. He received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry on research regarding protein-protein/protein-ligand interactions in Prof. Sara Linse's group at Lund University in Sweden (2006). He then went on to do postdoctoral research concerning the mechanism and the biological impact of amyloid assembly in Prof. Sheena Radford's laboratory at the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology in the University of Leeds (2006-2011). His research interests include supramolecular protein assembly, protein folding and misfolding, amyloid and prions, and AFM imaging. As a member of the KFG, he contributes his expertise in amyloid and prion biophysics to the group, and conduct research projects on the fundamental mechanisms of prion growth, propagation and transmission using S. cerevisiae yeast prion models.
Education
2011-2014, University of Kent, BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science
Ioannis worked on a biophysical project to investigate the amyloid cross-seeding phenomenon during summer of 2017
Job Titles:
- Member of the Lab
- Student
Nya is working on a project jointly supervised by Dan and Dr Jennifer Hiscock (School of Physical Sciences) to develop and characterise a novel set of supramolecular antimicrobial compounds.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Molecular Biology
Mick Tuite is currently the Professor of Molecular Biology and Head of School for the School of Biosciences. He began his research career in the Botany School (now Plant Sciences) at the University of Oxford where he studied the non-Mendelian genetic determinant [PSI+] under the guidance of Dr Brian Cox, the discoverer of [PSI+]. Subsequently, Mick continued biochemical studies of the [PSI+] determinant as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Cal McLaughlin at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). Here he demonstrated, using a yeast in vitro translation system, the role of a ribosome-associated factor (which we now know to be the Sup35p termination factor) in the [PSI+] phenomenon. Following a further two years as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Alan Kingsman in the Department of Biochemistry in Oxford (where he helped develop one of the first yeast expression systems for high value biopharmaceuticals), he started his own group at Kent in 1983. Since then, he has moved his research focus from a biochemical/genetic study of the translation termination machinery in yeast, to the study of the [PSI+] prion and the role of molecular chaperones in maintaining this epigenetic state. Using a wide range of genetic, molecular and biochemical techniques his research group have made a number of significant contributions to yeast prion research and published over 200 research articles and reviews and edited six books. He is also a co-inventor of a patent that covers technology for the improved folding of recombinant proteins in yeast and other eukaryotic cells, technology that is already being exploited by industry.
I am interested in fungal ecology, in particular how fungal populations are made of individuals, clones and populations and how this relates to systematics. Currently we are investigationg population biology of dermetophyte fungi using molecular phylogenetics. My previousexperience relates to plant pathogens (especially Fusarium) and to their biological control using mycoparasites such as Ampelomyces and Trichoderma.We also work with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) and their practical application in improving plant establishment in restoration and sustainability of ecosystems.
Education
2008-2011, Canterbury Christ Church University, BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences
2016-2017, University of Kent, MSc Infectious Diseases
2017-present, University of Kent, PhD
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Education:
2006-2010, Lewis University, BSc (Hons) Biology (Biochemistry (minor)
2010-2012, Rush University, MSc Medical Laboratory Science (previously known as Medical Technology)
2014-2015, Manchester University, MSc (Distinction) Medical Mycology
2015- 2019, University of Kent, PhD