Former Lab Members
Junfang Song (Former Postdoctoral Researcher, Dundee, co-advised by John Rouse (2018-2023)
Junfang graduated from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences where she obtained the degree of Ph.D. in Genetics. Junfang moved to the UK and worked as a postdoc in Andrea Muensterberg lab, at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her project was to find out that how the migration of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) was regulated in the early stage of vertebrate embryonic development. Her work resulted in the identification of crosstalk between signaling pathways providing a novel mechanism for controlling CPCs movement behavior.
After taking a career break Junfang joined Anton Gartner's lab at the University of Dundee in Dec 2018, and is co-advised by John Rouse. Her work is to understand the role of junction-resolving enzymes in maintaining genome stability. Junfang is particularly interested in combining structural and biochemical approaches to uncover the mechanisms through which the resolvases process branched DNA structures.
Publications:
Song, J., Freeman, A., Knebel, A., Gartner, A., & Lilley, D. (2020). Human ANKLE1 Is a Nuclease Specific for Branched DNA. J Mol Biol, 432(21), 5825–5834. Link to paper
Song, J., McColl, J., Camp, E., Kennerley, N., Mok, G. F., McCormick, D., Grocott, T., Wheeler, G. N., & Münsterberg, A. E. (2014). Smad1 transcription factor integrates BMP2 and Wnt3a signals in migrating cardiac progenitor cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,111(20), 7337–7342. Link to paper
Song, J., Yue, Q., & Münsterberg, A. (2011). Time-lapse imaging of chick cardiac precursor cells. Methods Mol Biol, (Clifton, N.J.), 769, 359–372. Link to paper
Shannon Payne Bourke (사넌) (Former visiting student 2022-2023)
Shannon, originally from Ireland is currently undertaking a Master of Science degree (MSci) in Molecular Biology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She undertook a summer internship at the Cell structure laboratory in Madrid, Spain where she participated in Anti-viral drug research. Shannon has joined the IBS to complete her year in industry (Master's degree) by investigating the function of the nuclease ANKLE1 in mammalian cells.
Lukasz Sitko (루카스 시트코) (Former graduate student 2021-2023)
Mechanisms of Mutagenesis Section
Lukasz graduated from the University of South Wales with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences. He is originally from Krakow, and is now studying combined Masters-Ph.D. courses in Biological Sciences at UNIST. His main interests include computational biology and evolution. He joined the IBS in October 2021.
Publications:
Ivanov D, Hwang T, Sitko LK, Lee S, Gartner A. (2023) Experimental systems for the analysis of mutational signatures: no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Biochem Soc Trans 51 (3): 1307-1317. Link to paper
Banyoon Cheon (천반윤) (Former postdoctoral researcher 2020-2021)
Mammalian DNA repair
Banyoon received her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and performed her postdoctoral training at the University College London. Her research focuses on identifying critical genes required for genome integrity.
Publication:
Cheon B, Lee HC, Wakai T, Fissore RA, “Ca2+ influx and the store-operated Ca2+ entry pathway undergo regulation during mouse oocyte maturation”, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2013 May; 24(9): 1396-1410. Link to paper
Johan C. Sunryd, Banyoon Cheon, Jill B. Graham, Kristina M. Giorda, Rafael A. Fissore, and Daniel N. Hebert, “TMTC1 and TMTC2 are novel endoplasmic reticulum tetratricopeptide repeat-containing adapter proteins involved in calcium homeostasis”, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2014 June: 289: 16085-16099. Link to paper
Arno Alpi (former Ph.D. student)
The rad-5 DNA damage response gene
The role of Ce-Rad-51 in meiosis and DNA repair
Ph.D. student from April 2000 to 2004
Arno did his undergraduate studies at the University of Vienna. After his Ph.D. he took on a Postdoc position at the MRC Institute of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK in the group of KJ Petal, to continue working on DNA damage responses. Arno published several important papers in the area of DNA cross-link repair during his Post Doc, worked as a group leader at MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation UNIT in Dundee, UK, before moving back to the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich Germany.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Bailly, A. P., Freeman, A., Hall, J., Déclais, A.-C., Alpi, A., Lilley, D. M., Ahmed, S., and Gartner, A. (2010) The Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of Gen1/Yen1 resolvases links DNA damage signaling to DNA double-strand break repair, PLoS Genet 6, e1001025.
Moser, S. C., von Elsner, S., Büssing, I., Alpi, A., Schnabel, R., and Gartner, A. (2009) Functional dissection of Caenorhabditis elegans CLK-2/TEL2 cell cycle defects during embryogenesis and germline development, PLoS Genet 5, e1000451.
Wicky, C., Alpi*, A., Passannante, M., Rose, A., Gartner, A., and Müller, F. (2004) Multiple genetic pathways involving the Caenorhabditis elegans Bloom's syndrome genes him-6, rad-51, and top-3 are needed to maintain genome stability in the germ line, Molecular and cellular biology 24, 5016-5027. *)Co-first author
Alpi, A., Pasierbek, P., Gartner, A., and Loidl, J. (2003) Genetic and cytological characterization of the recombination protein RAD-51 in Caenorhabditis elegans, Chromosoma 112, 6-16. *)Co-first author
Ahmed, S., Alpi*, A., Hengartner, M. O., and Gartner, A. (2001) C. elegans RAD-5/CLK-2 defines a new DNA damage checkpoint protein, Current Biology 11, 1934-1944. *)Co-first author
Alper Akay (former Ph.D. student)
Translational Control by GLD-1
Ph.D. student from 2008 to 2013
Alper did his undergraduate studies in Turkey and his Master's studies at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. After his Ph.D. he took on a Postdoc position at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge UK, in the group of Erick Miska. He published papers on basic mechanisms of RNAi and RNA modification. He is now a group leader at the University of East Anglia in England, UK. His research is funded by a prestigious MRC future leaders award.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Gartner, A., and Akay, A. (2013) Stress response: anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, Current Biology 23, R1012-R1014.
Akay, A., Craig, A., Lehrbach, N., Larance, M., Pourkarimi, E., Wright, J. E., Lamond, A., Miska, E., and Gartner, A. (2013) RNA-binding protein GLD-1/quaking genetically interacts with the mir-35 and the let-7 miRNA pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans, Open biology 3, 130151.
Ana Agostinho (former Ph.D. student)
Apoptosis Regulation
Meiotic Recombination
Ph.D. student from 2008 to 2013
Ana did her undergraduate studies in Portugal. After her Ph.D., she took on a Postdoc position at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm Sweden and continued to work on meiosis in the lab of Christer Höög. She is now a research officer focusing on advanced microscopy at the Karolinska.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Pelisch, F., Sonneville, R., Pourkarimi, E., Agostinho, A., Blow, J. J., Gartner, A., and Hay, R. T. (2014) Dynamic SUMO modification regulates mitotic chromosome assembly and cell cycle progression in Caenorhabditis elegans, Nature communications 5, 1-14.
Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Sonneville, R., Jagut, M., Woglar, A., Blow, J., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2013) Combinatorial regulation of meiotic holliday junction resolution in C. elegans by HIM-6 (BLM) helicase, SLX-4, and the SLX-1, MUS-81 and XPF-1 nucleases, PLoS Genet 9, e1003591.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Wang, B., Blow, J. J., and Gartner, A. (2016) The SMC-5/6 complex and the HIM-6 (BLM) helicase synergistically promote meiotic recombination intermediate processing and chromosome maturation during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis, PLoS genetics 12, e1005872.
MacKay, C., Déclais, A.-C., Lundin, C., Agostinho, A., Deans, A. J., MacArtney, T. J., Hofmann, K., Gartner, A., West, S. C., and Helleday, T. (2010) Identification of KIAA1018/FAN1, a DNA repair nuclease recruited to DNA damage by monoubiquitinated FANCD2, Cell 142, 65-76.
Ashley Craig (former Postdoc)
Translational Control by GLD-1
Ph.D. student from 2008 to 2013
Ashley did her undergraduate, graduate, and earlier Postdoctoral Studies in Dundee and Edinburgh, Scotland, working with Professor Ted Hupp as a Ph.D. student and Postdoc. After leaving my lab Ashly founded a scientific editing company.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Akay, A., Craig, A., Lehrbach, N., Larance, M., Pourkarimi, E., Wright, J. E., Lamond, A., Miska, E., and Gartner, A. (2013) RNA-binding protein GLD-1/quaking genetically interacts with the mir-35 and the let-7 miRNA pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans, Open biology 3, 130151.
Sonneville, R., Querenet, M., Craig, A., Gartner, A., and Blow, J. J. (2012) The dynamics of replication licensing in live Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, Journal of Cell Biology 196, 233-246.
Craig, A. L., Moser, S. C., Bailly, A. P., and Gartner, A. (2012) Methods for studying the DNA damage response in the Caenorhabditis elegans germline, Methods Cell Biol 107, 321-352.
Rutkowski, R., Dickinson, R., Stewart, G., Craig, A., Schimpl, M., Keyse, S. M., and Gartner, A. (2011) Regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans p53/CEP-1–Dependent Germ Cell Apoptosis by Ras/MAPK Signaling, PLoS Genet 7, e1002238.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Craig AL, Chrystal JA, Fraser JA, Sphyris N, Lin Y, Harrison BJ, Scott MT, Dornreiter I, Hupp TR. The Mdm2 ubiquitination signal in the DNA binding domain of p53 forms a docking site for calcium calmodulin superfamily members. (2007) MCB 27:3542-55.
Craig AL and Hupp TR. The regulation of CHK2 in human cancer. (2004) Oncogene 23:8411-8.
Pohler E, Craig AL, Cotton J, Lawrie L, Dillon JF, Ross P, Kernohan N, Hupp TR. The Barrett's antigen anterior gradient-2 silences the p53 transcriptional response to DNA damage. (2004) Mol Cell Proteomics 3:534-47.
Craig AL, Scott M, Burch LR, Smith G, Ball KL, Hupp TR. Allosteric effects mediate CHK2 phosphorylation of the p53 transactivation domain. (2003) EMBO Rep 4:787-792.
Signaling to p53: The Use of Phospho-Specific Antibodies to Probe for in vivo Kinase Activation. AL Craig, LR Burch, SE Bray, LE Finlan, NM Kernohan, and TR Hupp. (2002) P53 Methods. Edited by Sumitra and Swati Deb. Humana Press.
Yagui-Beltran A, Craig AL, Lawrie L, Thompson D, Pospisilova S, Johnston D, Kernohan N, Hopwood D, Dillon JF, Hupp TR. The human oesophageal squamous epithelium exhibits a novel type of heat shock protein response. (2001) Eur J Biochem 268:5343-55.
Blaydes JP, Craig AL, Wallace M, Ball HM, Traynor NJ, Gibbs NK, Hupp TR. Synergistic activation of p53-dependent transcription by two cooperating damage recognition pathways. (2000) Oncogene 10:3829-39.
Webley K, Bond JA, Jones CJ, Blaydes JP, Craig AL, Hupp T, Wynford-Thomas D. Posttranslational modifications of p53 in replicative senescence overlapping but distinct from those induced by DNA damage. (2000) Mol Cell Biol 20:2803-8.
Bond, JA, Webley K, Wyllie FS, Jones CJ, Craig AL, Hupp T, Wyndford-Thomas D. P53-dependent growth arrest and altered p53-immunoreactivity following metabolic labelling with 32P ortho-phosphate in human fibroblasts. (1999) Oncogene 18:3788-3792.
Craig AL, Blaydes JP, Burch LR, Thompson AM, Hupp TR. Dephosphorylation of p53 at Ser20 after cellular exposure to low levels of non-ionising radiation. (1999) Oncogene 18:6305-12.
Craig AL, Burch L, Vojtesek B, Mikutowska J, Thompson A, Hupp TR. Novel phosphorylation sites of human tumour suppressor protein p53 at Ser20 and Thr18 that disrupt the binding of mdm2 (mouse double minute 2) protein are modified in human cancers. (1999) Biochem J 15:133-41.
Baculovirus expression and the study of the regulation of the tumour suppressor protein p53. CA Midgley, AL Craig, JP Hite, and TR Hupp. (1998) DNA Transfer to Cultured Cells. Edited by Katya Ravid and R. Ian Freshney (ISBN 0-471-16572-7) Wiley-Liss Inc.
Black C, Withers AP, Gray JR, Bridges AB, Craig AL, Baty DU & Boxer M. Correlation of a recurrent FBN1 mutation (R122C) with an atypical familial Marfan syndrome phenotype. Hum. Mutation (1998) Suppl 1:S198-200.
Millam S, Mitchell S, Craig AL, Paoli M, Moscheni E, Angelini L. In vitro manipulation as a means for accelerated improvement of some new potential oil crop species. (1997) Industrial Crops and Products 6: 213-219.
Craig AL and Millam S. Modification of oilseed rape to produce oils for industrial use by means of applied tissue culture technology. (1995) Euphytica 85: 323-327.
Craig AL, Morrison I, Baird E, Waugh R, Coleman M, Davie P, and Powell W. Expression of reducing sugar accumulation in interspecific somatic hybrids of potato. (1994) Plant Cell Reports 13:401-405.
Aymeric Bailly (former Ph.D. student and Postdoc)
Mutants defective in DNA damage responses
Proteomics
Neddylation
PhD Student 2003 – 2008, Postdoc 2009-2010
Aymeric did his undergraduate studies in Lyon, France. He joined the Gartner lab, still in Munich and transferred to Dundee. Aymeric is continuing to work with C. elegans and jointed the group of Dimitris Xirodimas at the Montpellier Cell Biology Research Center, France. Aymeric holds a permanent semi-independent position.
Publications in-, or collaborating with the Gartner lab:
Bailly, A. P., Perrin, A., Serrano-Macia, M., Maghames, C., Leidecker, O., Trauchessec, H., Martinez-Chantar, M., Gartner, A., and Xirodimas, D. P. (2019) The balance between mono-and NEDD8-chains controlled by NEDP1 upon DNA damage is a regulatory module of the HSP70 ATPase activity, Cell reports 29, 212-224. e218.
Meier, B., Cooke, S. L., Weiss, J., Bailly, A. P., Alexandrov, L. B., Marshall, J., Raine, K., Maddison, M., Anderson, E., Stratton, M. R., Gartner, A., and Campbell, P. J. (2014) C. elegans whole-genome sequencing reveals mutational signatures related to carcinogens and DNA repair deficiency, Genome Res 24, 1624-1636.
Craig, A. L., Moser, S. C., Bailly, A. P., and Gartner, A. (2012) Methods for studying the DNA damage response in the Caenorhabditis elegans germline, Methods Cell Biol 107, 321-352.
Larance, M., Bailly, A. P*., Pourkarimi, E., Hay, R. T., Buchanan, G., Coulthurst, S., Xirodimas, D. P., Gartner, A., and Lamond, A. I. (2011) Stable-isotope labeling with amino acids in nematodes, Nature methods 8, 849-851. *)Co-first author
Bailly, A., and Gartner, A. (2011) Caenorhabditis elegans radiation responses, In Molecular Determinants of Radiation Response, pp 101-123, Springer, New York, NY.
Bailly, A. P., Freeman, A., Hall, J., Déclais, A.-C., Alpi, A., Lilley, D. M., Ahmed, S., and Gartner, A. (2010) The Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of Gen1/Yen1 resolvases links DNA damage signaling to DNA double-strand break repair, PLoS Genet 6, e1001025.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
N. Grandin, A. Bailly and M. Charbonneau. (2005) "Activation of Mrc1, a mediator of the replication checkpoint, by telomere erosion." Biology of the Cell (2005) 97, (799-814)
Alexander Holmes (Postdoc)
Neurodegeneration
Postdoc 2010 – 2014
Alex did his PhD on membrane traffic and cell adhesion in C. elegans in the Pettit Lab at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated in 2007. Following that, and in search of warmer climes, he did a post-doc at the Universite de Rennes 1 in France, were he studied the contribution of membrane traffic to EGF/Ras signalling during C. elegans vulval development. Missing the subtleties of the Scottish weather he returned to the UK in late 2010 when he joined the Gartner Lab.
Alex moved on to be a database curator at the EBI, Cambridge.
Bettina Meier (Postdoc and Senior Research Associate)
The C. elegans telomere length maintenance and DNA damage response
C. elegans meiotic recombination
Mutational Signatures.
Postdoc and senior research Associate (2005-2019)
Bettina did her Ph.D. with Heidi Feldmann at the Genecenter in Munich, Germany and then did her first Post Doc with Shawn Ahmed lab in North Carolina working on C. elegans telomere biology. She was in the Gartner lab for 14 years. Bettina recently took on a Bioinformatics position at Fios Genomics in Edinburgh.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Volkova, N. V., Meier, B *., González-Huici, V., Bertolini, S., Gonzalez, S., Vöhringer, H., Abascal, F., Martincorena, I., Campbell, P. J., and Gartner, A. (2020) Mutational signatures are jointly shaped by DNA damage and repair, Nature Communications 11, 1-15. *)Co-first author
Meier, B., Volkova, N. N., Hong, Y., Bertolini, S., González-Huici, V., Petrova, T., Boulton, S., Campbell, P. J., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2020) Systematic analysis of mutational spectra associated with DNA repair deficiency in C. elegans, bioRxiv.
Meier, B., Volkova, N. V., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2020) Analysis of mutational signatures in C. elegans: Implications for cancer genome analysis, DNA repair 95, 102957.
Meier, B., Volkova, N. V., Hong, Y., Schofield, P., Campbell, P. J., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2018) Mutational signatures of DNA mismatch repair deficiency in C. elegans and human cancers, Genome research 28, 666-675.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Wang, B., Scheidt, V., Meier, B., Woglar, A., Demetriou, S., Labib, K., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2018) LEM-3 is a midbody-tethered DNA nuclease that resolves chromatin bridges during late mitosis, Nature communications 9, 1-11.
Bertolini, S., Wang, B., Meier, B., Hong, Y., and Gartner, A. (2017) Caenorhabditis elegans BUB-3 and SAN-1/MAD3 spindle assembly checkpoint components are required for genome stability in response to treatment with ionizing radiation, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 7, 3875-3885.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Wang, B., Blow, J. J., and Gartner, A. (2016) The SMC-5/6 complex and the HIM-6 (BLM) helicase synergistically promote meiotic recombination intermediate processing and chromosome maturation during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis, PLoS genetics 12, e1005872.
Shlien, A., Campbell, B. B., de Borja, R., Alexandrov, L. B., Merico, D., Wedge, D., Van Loo, P., Tarpey, P. S., Coupland, P., Behjati, S., Pollett, A., Lipman, T., Heidari, A., Deshmukh, S., Avitzur, N., Meier, B., Gerstung, M., Hong, Y., Merino, D. M., Ramakrishna, M., Remke, M., Arnold, R., Panigrahi, G. B., Thakkar, N. P., Hodel, K. P., Henninger, E. E., Goksenin, A. Y., Bakry, D., Charames, G. S., Druker, H., Lerner-Ellis, J., Mistry, M., Dvir, R., Grant, R., Elhasid, R., Farah, R., Taylor, G. P., Nathan, P. C., Alexander, S., Ben-Shachar, S., Ling, S. C., Gallinger, S., Constantini, S., Dirks, P., Huang, A., Scherer, S. W., Grundy, R. G., Durno, C., Aronson, M., Gartner, A., Meyn, M. S., Taylor, M. D., Pursell, Z. F., Pearson, C. E., Malkin, D., Futreal, P. A., Stratton, M. R., Bouffet, E., Hawkins, C., Campbell, P. J., Tabori, U., and Biallelic Mismatch Repair Deficiency, C. (2015) Combined hereditary and somatic mutations of replication error repair genes result in rapid onset of ultra-hypermutated cancers, Nat Genet 47, 257-262.
Meier, B., and Gartner, A. (2014) Having a direct look: analysis of DNA damage and repair mechanisms by next generation sequencing, Experimental cell research 329, 35-41.
Meier, B., and Gartner, A. (2014) Having a direct look: analysis of DNA damage and repair mechanisms by next generation sequencing, Exp Cell Res 329, 35-41.
Meier, B., Cooke, S. L., Weiss, J., Bailly, A. P., Alexandrov, L. B., Marshall, J., Raine, K., Maddison, M., Anderson, E., Stratton, M. R., Gartner, A., and Campbell, P. J. (2014) C. elegans whole-genome sequencing reveals mutational signatures related to carcinogens and DNA repair deficiency, Genome Res 24, 1624-1636.
Agostinho, A., Meier *, B., Sonneville, R., Jagut, M., Woglar, A., Blow, J., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2013) Combinatorial regulation of meiotic holliday junction resolution in C. elegans by HIM-6 (BLM) helicase, SLX-4, and the SLX-1, MUS-81 and XPF-1 nucleases, PLoS Genet 9, e1003591. *)Co-first author
Meier, B., Barber, L. J., Liu, Y., Shtessel, L., Boulton, S. J., Gartner, A., and Ahmed, S. (2009) The MRT‐1 nuclease is required for DNA crosslink repair and telomerase activity in vivo in Caenorhabditis elegans, The EMBO journal 28, 3549-3563.
Meier, B., Clejan, I., Liu, Y., Lowden, M., Gartner, A., Hodgkin, J., and Ahmed, S. (2006) trt-1 is the Caenorhabditis elegans catalytic subunit of telomerase, PLoS Genet 2, e18.
Meier, B., and Gartner, A. (2006) Meiosis: checking chromosomes pair up properly, Current Biology 16, R249-R251.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Meier B, Clejan I., Liu Y, Lowden M., Gartner A., Hodgkin J., Ahmed S.: Trt-1 Is the Caenorhabditis elegans Catalytic Subunit of Telomerase. PLoS Genet. 2006 Feb 10;2(2):e18
Roy R., Meier B, McAinsh A.D., Feldmann H.M., and S.P. Jackson (2004). Separation-of-function mutants of yeast Ku80 reveal a Yku80p-Sir4p interaction involved in telomeric silencing. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 279(1):86-94.
Meier B, and S. Ahmed (2001). Checkpoints: Meiotic chromosome pairing takes an unexpected twist. Current Biology 11: R865-R868 (review).
Meier B, Driller L., Jaklin S., and H.M. Feldmann (2001). New function of CDC13 in positive telomere length regulation. Molecular and Cellular Biology 21: 4233-4245.
Feldmann, H., Driller, L., Meier B, Mages, G., Kellermann, J., and E.L. Winnacker (1996). HDF2, the second subunit of the Ku homolog from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 271:27765-27769.
Bin Wang (Postdoc)
C. elegans double-strand break repair and recombination
Postdoc (2010-2017)
Bin worked at the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing before he joined my lab. His Ph.D. thesis is focused on the fungal infection by nematodes. From 2007 to 2010 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences on the nematode sperm activation and cell motility. He joined the lab in late 2010 and left in 2017. He is a group leader in Nanning China and continues working on C. elegans. We still collaborate on radiation-sensitive C. elegans mutants Bin has isolated.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Wang, B., Scheidt, V., Meier, B., Woglar, A., Demetriou, S., Labib, K., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2018) LEM-3 is a midbody-tethered DNA nuclease that resolves chromatin bridges during late mitosis, Nature communications 9, 1-11.
González-Huici, V., Wang, B., and Gartner, A. (2017) A role for the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway in maintaining genome stability in Caenorhabditis elegans, Genetics 206, 1853-1864.
Bertolini, S., Wang, B., Meier, B., Hong, Y., and Gartner, A. (2017) Caenorhabditis elegans BUB-3 and SAN-1/MAD3 spindle assembly checkpoint components are required for genome stability in response to treatment with ionizing radiation, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 7, 3875-3885.
Pelisch, F., Tammsalu, T., Wang, B., Jaffray, E. G., Gartner, A., and Hay, R. T. (2017) A SUMO-dependent protein network regulates chromosome congression during oocyte meiosis, Molecular cell 65, 66-77.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Wang, B., Blow, J. J., and Gartner, A. (2016) The SMC-5/6 complex and the HIM-6 (BLM) helicase synergistically promote meiotic recombination intermediate processing and chromosome maturation during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis, PLoS genetics 12, e1005872.
Larance, M., Pourkarimi, E., Wang, B., Brenes Murillo, A., Kent, R., Lamond, A. I., and Gartner, A. (2015) Global Proteomics Analysis of the Response to Starvation in C. elegans, Mol Cell Proteomics 14, 1989-2001.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
D. Chen, H. Xiao, K. Zhang, B. Wang, Z. Gao, Y. Jian, X. Qi, J. Sun, L. Miao, C. Yang. Retromer Is Required for Apoptotic Cell Clearance by Phagocytic Receptor Recycling. Science, 2010, 327:1261-1264.
W. Fang, W. Ding, B. Wang, H. Zhou, H. Ouyang, J. Ming, C. Jin. Reduced expression of the O-Mannosyltransferase 2 (AfPmt2) Leads to Deficient Cell Wall and Abnormal Polarity in Aspergillus fumigatus. Glycobiology, 2010, 20:542-552.
B. Wang, X. Liu, W. Wu, X. Liu, S. Li. Purification, characterization, and gene cloning of an alkaline serine protease from a highly virulent strain of the nematode-endoparasitic fungus Hirsutella rhossiliensis. Microbiological Research, 2009, 164:665-673.
W. Fang, X. Yu, B. Wang, H. Zhou, H. Ouyang, J. Ming, C. Jin.Characterization of the Aspergillus fumigatus phosphomannose isomerase Pmi1 and its impact on cell wall synthesis and morphogenesis. Microbiology, 2009, 155:3281-3293.
B. Wang, Z. Liu, L. Miao. Recent advances in the study of spermatogenesis and fertilization in Caenorhabditis elegans. Hereditas, 2008, 30:677-686.
B. Wang, W. Wu, X. Liu. Purification and characterization of a neutral serine protease with nematicidal activity from Hirsutella rhossiliensis. Mycopathologia, 2007, 163:169-176.
Björn Schumacher (Ph.D student)
The C. elegans p53 pathway
Transcriptional targets of CEP-1/p53
Negative regulation of CEP-1/p53 by GLD-1
Ph.D. student (2000-2004)
Björn did his undergraduate studies at the University of Konstanz, in Germany. He was then also a student in the Cold Spring Harbor Labs in New York, USA. After leaving the Gartner lab Björn took on a Post Doc position at the University of Rotterdam, Netherlands in the lab of Jan Hoeijmakers to work on the interplay between DNA repair and the process of aging starting in July 2004. This funded, by prestigious EMBO and Marie Curie Post Doctoral fellowships. Björn now focuses on aging and DNA damage responses, and also started to use mammalian cells. His early independent research was funded by a prestigious ERC Junior Investigator award. He holds a full Professorship and directs a large research group at the University of Cologne in Germany. Björn is also involved in public engagement taking on a leading role in this in the area of ageing research in Germany. He wrote a comprehensive book describing the biology of ageing ‘The Mystery of Human Ageing’. It took him 16 years to get his original Ph.D. project published, but nevertheless he did very well.
Publications in Gartner lab:
G Ackermann, L., Schell, M., Pokrzywa, W., Kevei, É., Gartner, A., Schumacher, B., and Hoppe, T. (2016) E4 ligase–specific ubiquitination hubs coordinate DNA double-strand-break repair and apoptosis, Nature structural & molecular biology 23, 995-1002
Greiss, S., Schumacher, B., Grandien, K., Rothblatt, J., and Gartner, A. (2008) Transcriptional profiling in C. elegans suggests DNA damage dependent apoptosis as an ancient function of the p53 family, BMC genomics 9, 334.
Schumacher, B., and Gartner, A. (2006) Translational regulation of p53 as a potential tumor therapy target.
Schumacher, B., Hanazawa, M., Lee, M.-H., Nayak, S., Volkmann, K., Hofmann, R., Hengartner, M., Schedl, T., and Gartner, A. (2005) Translational repression of C. elegans p53 by GLD-1 regulates DNA damage-induced apoptosis, Cell 120, 357-368.
Schumacher, B., Schertel, C., Wittenburg, N., Tuck, S., Mitani, S., Gartner, A., Conradt, B., and Shaham, S. (2005) C. elegans ced-13 can promote apoptosis and is induced in response to DNA damage, Cell Death & Differentiation 12.
Schumacher, B., Hofmann, K., Boulton, S., and Gartner, A. (2001) The C. elegans homolog of the p53 tumor suppressor is required for DNA damage-induced apoptosis, Current biology 11, 1722-1727.
Ehsan Pourkarimi
Germ cell Apoptosis Regulation
Starvation Proteomics
Ph.D. student (2007-2013)
Ehsan grew up in Iran. He did his undergraduate studies in Molecular Genetics at the Eotvos Lorand University, in Budapest, Hungary. After his Ph.D. he did a Postdoc at Sloan Kettering, New York, USA. Working with Dr. Iestyn Whitehouse he made important contributions to the understanding of DNA replication during development. He recently took on a Faculty position at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. He works on C. elegans DNA damage responses and epigenetic inheritance.
The picture is from Roosevelt Island right in the middle of the East River, next to Manhattan. The Island was used first as a prison, then converted for the mentally insane, prison again and more recently upgraded for postdoc accommodation. Guess where Ehsan spends his time in New York...
Publications in Gartner lab:
Narayan, V., Ly, T., Pourkarimi, E., Murillo, A. B., Gartner, A., Lamond, A. I., and Kenyon, C. (2016) Deep proteome analysis identifies age-related processes in C. elegans, Cell systems 3, 144-159.
Larance, M., Pourkarimi, E., Wang, B., Brenes Murillo, A., Kent, R., Lamond, A. I., and Gartner, A. (2015) Global Proteomics Analysis of the Response to Starvation in C. elegans, Mol Cell Proteomics 14, 1989-2001.
Pelisch, F., Sonneville, R., Pourkarimi, E., Agostinho, A., Blow, J. J., Gartner, A., and Hay, R. T. (2014) Dynamic SUMO modification regulates mitotic chromosome assembly and cell cycle progression in Caenorhabditis elegans, Nature communications 5, 1-14.
Pourkarimi, E., and Gartner, A. (2013) If you don't want them shed them, Cell research 23, 171-172.
Pourkarimi, E., Greiss, S., and Gartner, A. (2012) Evidence that CED-9/Bcl2 and CED-4/Apaf-1 localization is not consistent with the current model for C. elegans apoptosis induction, Cell Death & Differentiation 19, 406-415.
Larance, M., Bailly, A. P., Pourkarimi, E., Hay, R. T., Buchanan, G., Coulthurst, S., Xirodimas, D. P., Gartner, A., and Lamond, A. I. (2011) Stable-isotope labeling with amino acids in nematodes, nature methods 8, 849-851.
Federico Pelisch (senior Postdoc co-advised by Ronald Hay)
C. elegans SUMO
Meiotic and mitotic chromosome segregation
Postdoc (2012-2017)
Federico is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked in the RNA field (alternative pre-mRNA processing) for almost 10 years before his interest shifted to protein research, specifically post-translational modifications. He obtained his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires in 2010. He came up with the idea of characterizing the SMO-1 (C. elegans SUMO ortholog) proteome using mass spectrometry (MS) and to study the biological role of this modification using C. elegans as a model. Fede obtained an EU-funded Marie Curie Fellowship to support the research he wanted to conduct. The research theme on SUMO led him to studies focused on mitotic and meiotic chromosome segregation. Federico won a Prestigious MRC research award and is now running his independent research group at the University of Dundee.
Publications with the Gartner lab:
Pelisch, F., Sonneville, R., Pourkarimi, E., Agostinho, A., Blow, J. J., Gartner, A., and Hay, R. T. (2014) Dynamic SUMO modification regulates mitotic chromosome assembly and cell cycle progression in Caenorhabditis elegans, Nat Commun 5, 5485.
Pelisch, F., Tammsalu, T., Wang, B., Jaffray, E. G., Gartner, A., and Hay, R. T. (2017) A SUMO-dependent protein network regulates chromosome congression during oocyte meiosis, Molecular cell 65, 66-77.
Giulio Maffioletti (Postdoc)
S-phase checkpoint regulation
Postdoc (2004-2008)
Giulio did his Ph.D. in the Foiani and Libreri labs in Milano, Italy focusing on budding yeast recombination. Giulio left academic science and trained and works as a physiotherapist at the local hospital in Dundee.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Giordano Liberi*, Giulio Maffioletti*, Chiara Lucca, Irene Chiolo, Anastasia Baryshnikova, Cecilia Cotta-Ramusino, Massimo Lopes , Achille Pellicioli, James E. Haber and Marco Foiani (2005). Rad51-dependent DNA structures accumulate at damaged replication forks in sgs1 mutants defective in the yeast orthologue of BLM RecQ helicase. GENES & DEVELOPMENT 19:339-350, 2005.
*Co-first author
Giulio Maffioletti, John H. Petrini, Marco Foiani and Giordano Liberi (2005). The protein complex containing Srs2, Sgs1, and Mre11 yeast repair factors is reorganized in response to DNA damage.Irene Chiolo, Walter Carotenuto, Mol Cell Biol. 5(13):5738-51.
Neda Masoudi (Ph.D student)
Neurodegeneration
Ph.D. student (2008-2013)
Neda grew up in Iran. She did her undergraduate studies at the Eotvos Lorand University, in Budapest, Hungary 2013. After her Ph.D. she joined the lab of Oliver Hobert at Columbia University, New York, USA, where she is currently working as a ‘research specialist’.
Publications in the Gartner lab:
Masoudi, N., Ibanez-Cruceyra, P., Offenburger, S. L., Holmes, A., and Gartner, A. (2014) Tetraspanin (TSP-17) protects dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA-induced neurodegeneration in C. elegans, PLoS Genet 10, e1004767.
Masoudi, N., Fancsalszky, L., Pourkarimi, E., Vellai, T., Alexa, A., Reményi, A., Gartner, A., Mehta, A., and Takács-Vellai, K. (2013) The NM23-H1/H2 homolog NDK-1 is required for full activation of Ras signaling in C. elegans, Development 140, 3486-3495.
Pablo Ibáñez Cruceyra (Postdoc)
Neurodegeneration
Ph.D. student (2008-2013)
Pablo was the first lab member to work on neurodegeneration in the Gartner lab. He made important contributions to the area of Parkinson’s research during his Ph.D. thesis in Paris being involved in one of the early studies of synuclein, a protein which when over-expressed and misfolded is associated with this disease. After leaving the Gartner lab he was Postdoc in the Bessereau lab at the time in Paris. He now works as a Senior Scientist at the ESPCI-SANOFI in Paris.
Publication in the Gartner lab:
Masoudi, N., Ibanez P., Offenburger, S.-L., Holmes, A., and Gartner, A. (2014) Tetraspanin (TSP-17) protects dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA-induced neurodegeneration in C. elegans, PLoS Genet 10, e1004767.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Ibanez, P., Lesage, S., Janin, S., Lohmann, E., Durif, F., Destee, A., Bonnet, A.M., Brefel-Courbon, C., Heath, S., Zelenika, D. et al. (2009) Alpha-synuclein gene rearrangements in dominantly inherited parkinsonism: frequency, phenotype, and mechanisms. Arch Neurol, 66, 102-8.
Leutenegger, A.L., Salih, M.A., Ibanez, P., Mukhtar, M.M., Lesage, S., Arabi, A., Lohmann, E., Durr, A., Ahmed, A.E. and Brice, A. (2006) Juvenile-onset Parkinsonism as a result of the first mutation in the adenosine triphosphate orientation domain of PINK1. Arch Neurol, 63, 1257-61.
Ibanez, P., Lesage, S., Lohmann, E., Thobois, S., De Michele, G., Borg, M., Agid, Y., Durr, A. and Brice, A. (2006) Mutational analysis of the PINK1 gene in early-onset parkinsonism in Europe and North Africa. Brain, 129, 686-94.
Lesage, S., Leutenegger, A.L., Ibanez, P., Janin, S., Lohmann, E., Durr, A. and Brice, A. (2005) LRRK2 haplotype analyses in European and North African families with Parkinson disease: a common founder for the G2019S mutation dating from the 13th century. Am J Hum Genet, 77, 330-2.
Lesage, S., Ibanez, P., Lohmann, E., Pollak, P., Tison, F., Tazir, M., Leutenegger, A.L., Guimaraes, J., Bonnet, A.M., Agid, Y. et al. (2005) G2019S LRRK2 mutation in French and North African families with Parkinson's disease. Ann Neurol, 58, 784-7.
Corti, O., Hampe, C., Darios, F., Ibanez, P., Ruberg, M. and Brice, A. (2005) Parkinson's disease: from causes to mechanisms. C R Biol, 328, 131-42.
Ibanez, P., Lohmann, E., Pollak, P., Durif, F., Tranchant, C., Agid, Y., Durr, A. and Brice, A. (2004) Absence of NR4A2 exon 1 mutations in 108 families with autosomal dominant Parkinson disease. Neurology, 62, 2133-4.
Ibanez, P., Bonnet, A.M., Debarges, B., Lohmann, E., Tison, F., Pollak, P., Agid, Y., Durr, A. and Brice, A. (2004) Causal relation between alpha-synuclein gene duplication and familial Parkinson's disease. Lancet, 364, 1169-71.
Itier, J.M., Ibanez, P.*, Mena, M.A., Abbas, N., Cohen-Salmon, C., Bohme, G.A., Laville, M., Pratt, J., Corti, O., Pradier, L. et al. (2003) Parkin gene inactivation alters behaviour and dopamine neurotransmission in the mouse. Hum Mol Genet, 12, 2277-91. *co-first author
Ibanez, P., De Michele, G., Bonifati, V., Lohmann, E., Thobois, S., Pollak, P., Agid, Y., Heutink, P., Durr, A. and Brice, A. (2003) Screening for DJ-1 mutations in early onset autosomal recessive parkinsonism. Neurology, 61, 1429-31.
Bonifati, V., Rizzu, P., van Baren, M.J., Schaap, O., Breedveld, G.J., Krieger, E., Dekker, M.C., Squitieri, F., Ibanez, P., Joosse, M. et al. (2003) Mutations in the DJ-1 gene associated with autosomal recessive early-onset parkinsonism. Science, 299, 256-9.
Lipps, G., Ibanez, P., Stroessenreuther, T., Hekimian, K. and Krauss, G. (2001) The protein ORF80 from the acidophilic and thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus binds highly site-specifically to double-stranded DNA and represents a novel type of basic leucine zipper protein. Nucleic Acids Res, 29, 4973-82.
Rachael Rutkowski (Postdoc)
C. elegans germ cell apoptosis
Postdoc (2005-2010)
Rachael trained at Monash University Melbourne Australia and did her Ph.D. in Townville, Australia on Drosophila genetics in the lab of Bill Warren. She took on a senior postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Clare Scott at the WEHI institute in Melboure, Australia. She later took on positions in Science communication and now works as a teacher.
Publications in the Gartner lab:
Liu, B., Du, H., Rutkowski, R., Gartner, A., and Wang, X. (2012) LAAT-1 is the lysosomal lysine/arginine transporter that maintains amino acid homeostasis, Science 337, 351-354.
Rutkowski, R., and Gartner, A. (2012) The shark in us: learning about the evolution of the p53 regulatory circuit, Cell Cycle 11, 216-216.
Rutkowski, R., Dickinson, R., Stewart, G., Craig, A., Schimpl, M., Keyse, S. M., and Gartner, A. (2011) Regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans p53/CEP-1–Dependent Germ Cell Apoptosis by Ras/MAPK Signaling, PLoS Genet 7, e1002238.
Rutkowski, R., Hofmann, K., and Gartner, A. (2010) Phylogeny and function of the invertebrate p53 superfamily, Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology 2, a001131.
Rutkowski, R., and Gartner, A. (2010) Tagging the dead: a bridging factor for Caenorhabditis elegans phagocyte receptors, Nature cell biology 12, 638-640.
Remi Sonneville (Postdoc, co-advised by Julian Blow)
DNA replication
Postdoc (2009-2016)
Remi did his Ph.D. in the Gönczy Lab working on the early embryonic cell cycles in C. elegans. He approached us with the idea of using C. elegans as a model to study the cell biology of DNA replication and managed to fund the first years of his Postdoctoral Research in Dundee via a prestigious EMBO long-term postdoctoral research fellowship. He is still working on C. elegans DNA replication, now as a Senior Research Associate in the lab of Karim Labib at the MRC unit in Dundee.
Publications with the Gartner lab:
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Wang, B., Scheidt, V., Meier, B., Woglar, A., Demetriou, S., Labib, K., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2018) LEM-3 is a midbody-tethered DNA nuclease that resolves chromatin bridges during late mitosis, Nature communications 9, 1-11.
Sonneville, R., Moreno, S. P., Knebel, A., Johnson, C., Hastie, C. J., Gartner, A., Gambus, A., and Labib, K. (2017) CUL-2 LRR-1 and UBXN-3 drive replisome disassembly during DNA replication termination and mitosis, Nature cell biology 19, 468-479.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Wang, B., Blow, J. J., and Gartner, A. (2016) The SMC-5/6 complex and the HIM-6 (BLM) helicase synergistically promote meiotic recombination intermediate processing and chromosome maturation during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis, PLoS genetics 12, e1005872.
Sonneville, R., Craig, G., Labib, K., Gartner, A., and Blow, J. J. (2015) Both chromosome decondensation and condensation are dependent on DNA replication in C. elegans embryos, Cell reports 12, 405-417.
Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Sonneville, R., Jagut, M., Woglar, A., Blow, J., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2013) Combinatorial regulation of meiotic holliday junction resolution in C. elegans by HIM-6 (BLM) helicase, SLX-4, and the SLX-1, MUS-81 and XPF-1 nucleases, PLoS Genet 9, e1003591.
Sonneville, R., Querenet, M., Craig, A., Gartner, A., and Blow, J. J. (2012) The dynamics of replication licensing in live Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, Journal of Cell Biology 196, 233-246.
Franz, A., Orth, M., Pirson, P. A., Sonneville, R., Blow, J. J., Gartner, A., Stemmann, O., and Hoppe, T. (2011) CDC-48/p97 coordinates CDT-1 degradation with GINS chromatin dissociation to ensure faithful DNA replication, Molecular cell 44, 85-96.
Sandra Moser (Ph.D student)
Essential roles of C. elegans RAD-5/CLK-2
Ph.D. Student (2003 – 2008)
Sandra did her undergraduate studies at the Technical University in Munich. After obtaining her Ph.D. she joined the lab of Jason Swedlow in Dundee. Together with the lab of Sonia Rocha and Angus Lamond, she made important contributions in the area of protein hydroxylation.
Publications in the Gartner lab:
Craig, A. L., Moser, S. C., Bailly, A. P., and Gartner, A. (2012) Methods for studying the DNA damage response in the Caenorhabdatis elegans germline, Methods Cell Biol 107, 321-352.
Moser, S. C., von Elsner, S., Büssing, I., Alpi, A., Schnabel, R., and Gartner, A. (2009) Functional dissection of Caenorhabditis elegans CLK-2/TEL2 cell cycle defects during embryogenesis and germline development, PLoS Genet 5, e1000451.
Mouysset, J., Deichsel, A., Moser, S., Hoege, C., Hyman, A. A., Gartner, A., and Hoppe, T. (2008) Cell cycle progression requires the CDC-48UFD− 1/NPL− 4 complex for efficient DNA replication, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105, 12879-12884.
Sarah-Lena Offenburger (Ph.D student)
Neurodegeneration
Ph.D. Student (2012 – 2018)
Sarah obtained her diploma (equals MSc) in Biochemistry from the University of Tuebingen, Germany. During her Diploma thesis, she worked with the neurobiological model organism Platynereis dumerilii in the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. In the Gartner lab, Sarah worked on C. elegans models for Parkison’s disease and on dopaminergic neurodifferentiation. After her Ph.D. she continued working on C. elegans and is now working in the lab of Ben Lehner in Barcelona, Spain using C. elegans as a model for epigenetic inheritance.
Publications in the Gartner lab:
Offenburger, S.-L., Ho, X. Y., Tachie-Menson, T., Coakley, S., Hilliard, M. A., and Gartner, A. (2018) 6-OHDA-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans is promoted by the engulfment pathway and inhibited by the transthyretin-related protein TTR-33, PLoS genetics 14, e1007125.
Offenburger, S.-L., Jongsma, E., and Gartner, A. (2018) Mutations in Caenorhabditis elegans neuroligin-like glit-1, the apoptosis pathway and the calcium chaperone crt-1 increase dopaminergic neurodegeneration after 6-OHDA treatment, PLoS genetics 14, e1007106.
Offenburger, S.-L., and Gartner, A. (2018) 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) oxidative stress assay for observing dopaminergic neuron loss in Caenorhabditis elegans, Bio-protocol 8.
Offenburger, S.-L., Bensaddek, D., Murillo, A. B., Lamond, A. I., and Gartner, A. (2017) Comparative genetic, proteomic and phosphoproteomic analysis of C. elegans embryos with a focus on ham-1/STOX and pig-1/MELK in dopaminergic neuron development, Scientific reports 7, 1-17.
Masoudi, N., Ibanez-Cruceyra, P., Offenburger, S.-L., Holmes, A., and Gartner, A. (2014) Tetraspanin (TSP-17) protects dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA-induced neurodegeneration in C. elegans, PLoS Genet 10, e1004767.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Conzelmann, M., Offenburger, S.-L., Asadulina, A., Keller, T., MFCnch, T.a, & JE9kely, G. (2011). Neuropeptides regulate swimming depth of Platynereis larvae. PNAS, 108(46), E1174-83. doi:10.1073/pnas.1109085108.
Maier, A. A. T., Stehling-Sun, S., Offenburger, S.-L., & Lohmann, J. J. U.(2011). The bZIP transcription factor PERIANTHIA: a multifunctional hub formeristem control. Frontiers in Plant Physiology, 2(November), 79. doi:10.3389/fpls.2011.00079.
Sebastian Greiss (Ph.D. student)
The role of histone deacetylases in irradiation induced apoptosis
Transcriptional targets of cep-1/p53
Ph.D. Student and Postdoc (2003 – 2009)
Sebastian did his undergraduate studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. He joined the lab in Munich and transferred with the lab to Dundee. After leaving the lab, Sebastian was a postdoctoral research assistant with Jason Chin at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. During this time, he published a paper where he first described the expansion of the genetic code in animas such that artificial amino acids could be incoporated into C. elegans. J. Am. Chem.Soc. 2011, 1333(36):14196-9” This paper was very widely commented on at the time of publication, also in the public press. Sebastian is now a group leader at the University of Edinburgh still focusing on C. elegans methods development. He funded his lab in Edinburgh via a prestigious EU funded ERC Career Development Award.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Pourkarimi, E., Greiss, S., and Gartner, A. (2012) Evidence that CED-9/Bcl2 and CED-4/Apaf-1 localization is not consistent with the current model for C. elegans apoptosis induction, Cell Death & Differentiation 19, 406-415.
Ito, S., Greiss, S., Gartner, A., and Derry, W. B. (2010) Cell-nonautonomous regulation of C. elegans germ cell death by kri-1, Current Biology 20, 333-338.
Greiss, S., and Gartner, A. (2009) Sirtuin/Sir2 phylogeny, evolutionary considerations and structural conservation, Molecules and cells 28, 407.
Greiss, S., Hall, J., Ahmed, S., and Gartner, A. (2008) C. elegans SIR-2.1 translocation is linked to a proapoptotic pathway parallel to cep-1/p53 during DNA damage-induced apoptosis, Genes & development 22, 2831-2842.
Greiss, S., Schumacher, B., Grandien, K., Rothblatt, J., and Gartner, A. (2008) Transcriptional profiling in C. elegans suggests DNA damage dependent apoptosis as an ancient function of the p53 family, BMC genomics 9, 334.
Simon Bertonlini (Ph.D. student)
C. elegans DNA damage response
Ph.D. Student (2013 – 2018)
Simone got his Bachelor and Master Degree in Molecular Biology at the University of the Study of Padua, Italy. He also got a Master's degree in Genetics at the University Paris Diderot, France, where he worked in the Lionel Pintard lab on the mitosis-meiosis balance in C. elegans germline. After his Ph.D. he returned to Italy and is now a Quality Control Officer at TRUSTiCERT.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Volkova, N. V., Meier, B., González-Huici, V., Bertolini, S., Gonzalez, S., Vöhringer, H., Abascal, F., Martincorena, I., Campbell, P. J., and Gartner, A. (2020) Mutational signatures are jointly shaped by DNA damage and repair, Nature Communications 11, 1-15.
Meier, B., Volkova, N. N., Hong, Y., Bertolini, S., González-Huici, V., Petrova, T., Boulton, S., Campbell, P. J., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2020) Systematic analysis of mutational spectra associated with DNA repair deficiency in C. elegans, bioRxiv.
Bertolini, S., Wang, B., Meier, B., Hong, Y., and Gartner, A. (2017) Caenorhabditis elegans BUB-3 and SAN-1/MAD3 spindle assembly checkpoint components are required for genome stability in response to treatment with ionizing radiation, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 7, 3875-3885.
Virkram Narayam (Postdoc, co-advised by Angus Lamond and Cynthia Kenyon, USCA, San Francisco)
Proteomics of Ageing
Postdoc (2003 – 2009)
Vikram is originally from India and did his Ph.D. in the lab of Kathlyn Ball, at the University of Edinburgh working on protein degradation. He approached us with the idea of using C. elegans as a model system to study the changes in the dynamic proteome during Aging. Ageing was initially believed to be a haphazard process based on early observations of the progressive, seemingly disorganised deterioration of tissues and vital body functions in aged individuals. However, it is now known to be a regulated biological process controlled by multiple signalling pathways. Vikram one a prestigious Sir Henry Dale Fellowship to conduct his research in Dundee and San Francisco, and managed to provide the most detailed description of how the proteome changes during C. elegans aging. After leaving the lab Vikram work at Calico a company funded by Google and continued to focus on aging research. Vikram in the last years worked on naked mole rats, a model system for vertebrate aging.
Publications with Gartner lab:
Narayan, V., Ly, T., Pourkarimi, E., Murillo, A. B., Gartner, A., Lamond, A. I., and Kenyon, C. (2016) Deep proteome analysis identifies age-related processes in C. elegans, Cell systems 3, 144-159.
Bensaddek, D., Narayan, V*) ., Nicolas, A., Brenes Murillo, A., Gartner, A., Kenyon, C. J., and Lamond, A. I. (2016) Micro‐proteomics with iterative data analysis: proteome analysis in C. elegans at the single worm level, Proteomics 16, 381-392.
*)Co-first author
M. Yasir Malik (Ph.D. student)
C. elegans Starvation Response.
Ph.D. student (2014 – 2019)
Before joining the Gartner lab, Yasir was a Junior Research Fellow with Prof. M.W. Amin (May 2011-2013), at Hakim Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College, Aligarh in India, and worked on herbal drugs that delay C. elegans aging. Between 2010 and 2011 he was a Junior Research Fellow with Dr. Arnab Mukhopadhyay at the Molecular Aging Lab at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. After leaving the Gartner lab he started a Postdoc in the Tullet lab, at the University of Kent in England continuing to work on C. elegans aging. We are still collaborating, wrapping up his Dundee project.
Ye Hong (Postdoc)
C. elegans meiotic recombination and genome stability
Postdoc 2012 – 2017
Ye was an undergraduate student at Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China, and did his Ph.D. at the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Jinan, China, visiting the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany for one year. His research in the Gartner lab was focused on meiotic recombination, chromosome biology, and now fail-safe mechanisms of genome maintenance. After leaving the lab in 2017, Ye joined the lab of Karim Labib at the MRC unit in Dundee. In 2009 Ye took on an assistant Professorship Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong. He continues to work on C. elegans meiosis and DNA replication.
Publications with Gartner lab:
Meier, B., Volkova, N. N., Hong, Y., Bertolini, S., González-Huici, V., Petrova, T., Boulton, S., Campbell, P. J., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2020) Systematic analysis of mutational spectra associated with DNA repair deficiency in C. elegans, bioRxiv.
Hong, Y., Velkova, M., Silva, N., Jagut, M., Scheidt, V., Labib, K., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2018) The conserved LEM-3/Ankle1 nuclease is involved in the combinatorial regulation of meiotic recombination repair and chromosome segregation in Caenorhabditis elegans, PLoS genetics 14, e1007453.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Wang, B., Scheidt, V., Meier, B., Woglar, A., Demetriou, S., Labib, K., Jantsch, V., and Gartner, A. (2018) LEM-3 is a midbody-tethered DNA nuclease that resolves chromatin bridges during late mitosis, Nature communications 9, 1-11.
Bertolini, S., Wang, B., Meier, B., Hong, Y., and Gartner, A. (2017) Caenorhabditis elegans BUB-3 and SAN-1/MAD3 spindle assembly checkpoint components are required for genome stability in response to treatment with ionizing radiation, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 7, 3875-3885.
Hong, Y., Sonneville, R., Agostinho, A., Meier, B., Wang, B., Blow, J. J., and Gartner, A. (2016) The SMC-5/6 complex and the HIM-6 (BLM) helicase synergistically promote meiotic recombination intermediate processing and chromosome maturation during Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis, PLoS genetics 12, e1005872.
Shlien, A., Campbell, B. B., de Borja, R., Alexandrov, L. B., Merico, D., Wedge, D., Van Loo, P., Tarpey, P. S., Coupland, P., Behjati, S., Pollett, A., Lipman, T., Heidari, A., Deshmukh, S., Avitzur, N., Meier, B., Gerstung, M., Hong, Y., Merino, D. M., Ramakrishna, M., Remke, M., Arnold, R., Panigrahi, G. B., Thakkar, N. P., Hodel, K. P., Henninger, E. E., Goksenin, A. Y., Bakry, D., Charames, G. S., Druker, H., Lerner-Ellis, J., Mistry, M., Dvir, R., Grant, R., Elhasid, R., Farah, R., Taylor, G. P., Nathan, P. C., Alexander, S., Ben-Shachar, S., Ling, S. C., Gallinger, S., Constantini, S., Dirks, P., Huang, A., Scherer, S. W., Grundy, R. G., Durno, C., Aronson, M., Gartner, A., Meyn, M. S., Taylor, M. D., Pursell, Z. F., Pearson, C. E., Malkin, D., Futreal, P. A., Stratton, M. R., Bouffet, E., Hawkins, C., Campbell, P. J., Tabori, U., and Biallelic Mismatch Repair Deficiency, C. (2015) Combined hereditary and somatic mutations of replication error repair genes result in rapid onset of ultra-hypermutated cancers, Nat Genet 47, 257-262.
Publications before joining the Gartner lab:
Hong Y, Chu M, Li Y, Ni J, Sheng D, Hou G, She Q, Shen Y. Dissection of the functional domains of an archaeal Holliday junction helicase DNA repair,(2011) Nov 6.
Hong Y, Wu L, Liu B, Peng C, Sheng D, Ni J, Shen Y. Characterization of a glucan phosphorylase from the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii strain 7.J. Mol. Catal. B: Enzy. (2008), 54, 27-34.
Ma X, Hong Y, Han W, Sheng D, Ni J, Hou G, Shen Y Single-stranded DNA binding activity of XPBI, but not XPBII, from Sulfolobus tokodaii causes double-stranded DNA melting Extremophiles.(2011) 15, 67-76.
Wu L, Liu B, Hong Y, Sheng D, Shen Y, Ni J. Residue Tyr224 is critical for the thermostability of Geobacillus sp. RD-2 lipase. Biotechnol Lett. (2010),32,107-12.
Liu B, Wu L, Liu T, Hong Y, Shen Y, Ni J.A MOFRL family glycerate kinase from the thermophilic crenarchaeon, Sulfolobus tokodaii, with unique enzymatic properties. Biotechnol Lett. (2009),31(12):1937-41.
Liu B, Hong Y, Wu L, Li Z, Ni J, Sheng D, Shen Y A unique highly thermostable 2-phosphoglycerate forming glycerate kinase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii: gene cloning, expression and characterization. Extremophiles. (2007), 11(5):733-9.
Liu B, Li Z, Hong Y, Ni J, Sheng D, Shen Y. Cloning, expression and characterization of a thermostable exo-beta-D-glucosaminidase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii. Biotechnol Lett. 2006, 28(20):1655-60.
Victor Gonzalez-Huici (Postdoc)
C. elegans genome stability
Postdoc (2012 – 2017)
Victor did his PhD in Margarita Salas’ group in Madrid, studying DNA replication and architecture in Bacillus subtilis bacteriophages. He then moved to the IFOM in Milan, Italy for a postdoc on genome instability and DNA repair mechanisms in yeast, first in Marco Foiani’s lab then to Dana Branzei’s group. In late 2013, he joined the Gartner lab working on the C. elegans DNA damage response. Victor currently works in the lab of Nuria Lopez-Bigas as a Senior Research Associate in Barcelona, Spain.
Publications in Gartner lab:
Volkova, N. V., Meier, B., González-Huici, V., Bertolini, S., Gonzalez, S., Vöhringer, H., Abascal, F., Martincorena, I., Campbell, P. J., and Gartner, A. (2020) Mutational signatures are jointly shaped by DNA damage and repair, Nature Communications 11, 1-15.
Meier, B., Volkova, N. N., Hong, Y., Bertolini, S., González-Huici, V., Petrova, T., Boulton, S., Campbell, P. J., Gerstung, M., and Gartner, A. (2020) Systematic analysis of mutational spectra associated with DNA repair deficiency in C. elegans, bioRxiv.
González-Huici, V., Wang, B., and Gartner, A. (2017) A role for the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway in maintaining genome stability in Caenorhabditis elegans, Genetics 206, 1853-1864.
Publications before Joining the Gartner lab:
Gonzalez-Huici, V., Lázaro, J.M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2000) "Specific recognition of parental terminal protein by DNA polymerase for initiation of protein-primed DNA replication". J. Biol. Chem. 275, 14678-14683.
Gonzalez-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2000) "Sequence requirements for protein-primed initiation and elongation of phage Phi29 DNA replication". J. Biol. Chem. 275, 40547-40553.
Gonzalez-Huici V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "The push-pull mechanism of bacteriophage Ø29 DNA injection". Mol. Microbiol. 52, 529-540.
Gonzalez-Huici V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Genome wide, supercoiling-dependent in vivo binding of a viral protein involved in DNA replication and transcriptional control". Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 2306-2314.
Gonzalez-Huici V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Binding of phage Phi29 architectural protein p6 to the viral genome: evidence for topological restriction of the phage linear DNA". Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 3493-3502.
Gonzalez-Huici, V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Bacteriophage Phi29 protein p6: an architectural protein involved in genome organization, replication and control of transcription". J. Mol. Recognit. 17, 390-396.
Gonzalez-Huici, V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Phage Phi29 proteins p1 and p17 are required for efficient binding of architectural protein p6 to viral DNA in vivo". J. Bacteriol. 186, 8401-8406.
González-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2006) "Requirements for Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage Phi29 DNA ejection". Gene 374, 19-25.
Alcorlo, M., Gonzalez-Huici, V., Hermoso, J.M., Meijer, W.J.J. and Salas, M. (2007) "The phage Phi29 membrane protein p16.7, involved in DNA replication, is required for efficient ejection of the viral genome". J. Bacteriol. 189, 5542-5549.
Bermejo, R., Capra, T., Gonzalez-Huici, V., Facchinetti, D., Cocito, A., Natoli, G., Katou, Y., Mori, H., Kurokawa, K., Shirahige, K. and Foiani, M. (2009) "Genome-organizing factors Top2 and Hmo1 prevent chromosome fragility at sites of S phase transcription". Cell 138, 870-884.
Gonzalez-Huici V., Szakal, B., Urulangodi, M., Psakhye, I., Castellucci, F., Menolfi, D., Rajakumara, E., Fumasoni, M., Bermejo, R., Jentsch, S. and Branzei, D. (2014) "Topological changes involving a molecular DNA bender facilitate DNA damage tolerance by template switching". EMBO J. Jan 28 (epub ahead of print).