Department of Pharmacology Seminar Series
Seminars will be held as usual in the Departmental Seminar Room at 12:15 - 13:15 on Fridays in Full Term (unless noted below). After the talk, there will be tea and cake and a chance to talk informally with the speaker.
If anyone wishes to meet with any speaker before the talk, please contact comms@phar.cam.ac.uk in advance.
We also maintain a list of previous talks.
Schedule for Michaelmas 2026
Wednesday September 23 2026
Speaker: Dr Nandan Haloi, Stockholm University
Title: Bridging Molecular Simulation, Cryo-EM and AI to Understand Protein Dynamics
Date and time: Wednesday 23 September, 11:00 - 12:00
Abstract: The central goal of my research is to develop data-driven computational approaches for characterizing macromolecular dynamics and understanding how drugs modulate these dynamics at atomic resolution. In the first part of this talk, I will show how we use physics-based molecular simulations to explore conformational states that have proven challenging to resolve experimentally, including open states of GABA receptors and cryptic drug-binding pockets in serotonin receptors. While these approaches can reveal functionally important states and mechanisms, achieving sufficient conformational sampling remains computationally demanding. In the second part, I will discuss how emerging AI approaches could help overcome this limitation. Although tools such as AlphaFold have transformed static protein structure prediction, learning the conformational dynamics underlying protein function remains a major challenge, in part because high-quality, atomic-resolution training data describing molecular motion are scarce. I will present our efforts to address this problem by developing AI methods that integrate physical information with experimental structural data, particularly cryo-EM. Together, these approaches point towards a framework in which molecular simulation, experimental structural biology, and AI complement one another to provide a more complete description of macromolecular dynamics and how these dynamics can be therapeutically modulated.
Biography: Nandan Haloi is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Erik Lindahl’s group at SciLifeLab, Stockholm University. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he worked with Emad Tajkhorshid on developing and applying molecular dynamics methods to investigate membrane-protein structure, dynamics, and function. His research focuses on understanding how conformational dynamics regulate membrane proteins and how these dynamics are modulated by drugs and other ligands. More recently, his work has expanded toward integrating molecular simulations with machine learning and cryo-EM to characterize experimentally challenging conformational states. His long-term research goal is to develop computational approaches that bridge molecular simulation, structural biology, and AI to understand protein dynamics and their pharmacological modulation at atomic resolution.
Friday October 9, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Richard Morimoto, Northwestern University
Talk Title: Safeguarding the Proteome in Aging and Disease: Pharmacological Strategies Against Neurodegenerative Protein Misfolding
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: Aging and proteotoxic stress compromise proteome stability, disrupting protein solubility, function, and aggregation state. Here, I present two complementary perspectives on proteostasis failure and intervention. First, structural proteomics using the genetic model systems C. elegans reveals that one-third of the proteome undergoes conformational alterations in early aging. Crucially, these shifts directly target core components of the proteostasis network (PN)—including ribosomes, molecular chaperones, and the proteasome—concentrating within key functional domains to reflect a dynamic balance between adaptive remodeling and pathological decline. Second, we evaluate an autophagy-enhancing small molecule proteostasis regulator in transdifferentiated human cortical neurons derived from 37 individuals expressing wild-type (MAPT WT) or pathogenic MAPT variants (R406W, A152T, P301L, N279K, and IVS10+16) linked to FTD, AD, PSP, and Parkinsonism. These patient-derived models display distinct tau pathological signatures, marked by high Thioflavin T–positive amyloid, elevated AT8 phosphorylation, MC1-positive conformations, and altered 4R/3R isoform ratios. We established a key therapeutic window where periodic treatment with the autophagy regulator prior to pathology onset completely prevents tau amyloid formation and hyperphosphorylation, whereas post-pathology intervention is markedly less effective. Together, these findings highlight mutation-specific tau pathology and demonstrate the critical potential of early-intervention proteostasis strategies in neurodegenerative disease.
Biography: Dr. Richard I. Morimoto is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology and Director of the Rice Institute for Biomedical Research at Northwestern University.
Rick received his B.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, subsequently received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the laboratory of Professor Murray Rabinowitz, University of Chicago in 1978. He then conducted his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Matthew Meselson in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. He was concurrently a Tutor in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College. In 1982, Morimoto joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He has served as the Chair of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology, the Dean of The Graduate School, and the Associate Provost of Graduate Education at Northwestern. He has given talks at universities and symposia throughout the world, and has been a Visiting Professor at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, Beijing University, École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University, Osaka University, University of Rome, Technion University in Israel and the University of Cambridge. He was a founder of the biotech company Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc in Cambridge MA, to develop small molecule therapeutics to treat diseases of protein homeostasis.
Friday October 16, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Andrew Tobin, University of Glasgow
Talk Title: Targeting GPCRs in disease - from fundamental understanding to novel medicines
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Biography: Andrew is currently a Professor at the University of Glasgow where runs an active academic lab focused on G protein coupled receptors and how they might be targeted in brain diseases including neurodegeneration and schizophrenia as well as inflammatory gut disease and severe asthma. As Director of the Advanced Research Centre (ARC) Andrew leads a flagship initiative underpinned by a £130M new build that houses over 550 researchers designed to redefine the meaning of interdisciplinary research. Andrew is also co-founder and CEO of Keltic Pharma Therapeutics Ltd, a biotechnology company focused on a novel drug-discovery platform delivering a range of new medicines from novel treatments of Parkinson’s disease to a radical cure for malaria. In his spare time, Andrew can think of nothing better than sailing the Western Isles of Scotland – probably the most beautiful place on earth.
Friday October 23, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel, University of Bristol
Talk Title: Engineering Next-Generation Antivenoms: Recombinant Snake Venom Metalloproteinases, Ribosome Display and ADDomer Nanoparticles
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: Snakebite envenoming is a neglected tropical disease that causes substantial mortality and long-term disability worldwide. We generate next-generation recombinant antivenoms using protein engineering and in vitro display technologies. Using ribosome display, we select high-affinity toxin-neutralising binders against defined venom antigens, including phospholipases A₂. These binders are presented as ADDomer nanoparticles, a thermostable and highly modular platform that displays 60 binding sites, enhancing avidity and neutralisation potency.
Snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) are major pathogenic components of viper venoms. These multidomain, zinc-dependent proteases drive haemorrhage, vascular injury, and tissue necrosis following envenoming, making their neutralisation a key objective for effective treatment. To address this challenge, we established a generic SVMP production pipeline using the MultiBac insect-cell expression system. By producing recombinant SVMP zymogens, we dissected the proteolytic mechanisms underlying autoactivation and characterised the resulting cytotoxic and haemotoxic activities. These recombinant toxins provide well-defined targets for binder selection and functional studies, while also enabling bioprospecting for the development of improved recombinant antivenoms.
Biography: Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel's research spans antibody engineering, structural biology and translational biomedical science. During her PhD with Andreas Plückthun at the University of Zürich in Switzerland, she co-developed ribosome display and was the first to generate picomolar-affinity human scFv antibodies entirely in vitro, establishing a technology that is now widely used for antibody discovery.
As a postdoctoral researcher with Nenad Ban at ETH Zürich, she expanded her expertise into cryogenic electron microscopy and made fundamental contributions to our understanding of ribosome structure and function. She subsequently joined EMBL Grenoble as a Team Leader, where she continued her research on ribosomes, gene expression and mRNA surveillance pathways, supported by an ERC Starting Grant.
Since 2014, she has been Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, where she established high-resolution cryo-EM and founded the GW4 Cryo-EM Facility. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her laboratory discovered a druggable fatty-acid-binding pocket in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, opening new avenues for antiviral development. Her team applies ribosome display to develop next-generation recombinant antivenoms and other innovative biologics. Her interdisciplinary research programme at the interface of engineering biology, structural biology and biotechnology is supported by the BBSRC, Wellcome, the European Commission and a UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Award.
Friday October 30, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Postdoctoral Research Associate Talks
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Speaker: Maria Zacharopoulou
Talk Title: Design Of DNA-Peptide Nanostructures Against Intracellular Targets in Cancer
Abstract: Cell signalling pathways have been shown to be disrupted in cancer cells, leading to uncontrolled growth and proliferation. One promising approach for the development of effective cancer treatments is to target specific proteins involved in these pathways and control their activity. In this project we are designing peptide-functionalised DNA nanostructures targeting the intracellular tankyrase proteins for inhibition, which are protein regulators of the Wnt signalling pathway. The DNA nanostructures act as a drug delivery vehicle for the tankyrase inhibitor peptides. They are synthesised by predictably folding a long single-stranded DNA scaffold with shorter complementary DNA strands and are easily functionalised with fluorophores and active molecules to a high degree of multivalency. We have successfully loaded DNA nanostructures of two different geometries with peptides using azide-DBCO click chemistry. HeLa, HEK-293T cells and the Wnt-active cell line SW480 uptake non-functionalised DNA nanostructures, as well as the DNA nanostructures that carry the tankyrase-binding peptide. We show, via confocal microscopy, that diffuse signal that does not colocalise with the lysosomes can be detected near the periphery of the cells. The peptide-functionalised nanostructures efficiently inhibit the Wnt pathway, in a comparable degree to known small molecule tankyrase inhibitors. Our work in progress involves thoroughly characterising the endocytosis mechanism of the nanostructures.
Biography: Maria completed her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the National Technical University of Athens. She then pursued her MPhil and PhD degrees in the Phillips and Kaminski-Schierle groups at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Cambridge, as part of an interdisciplinary team. She focused on understanding the mechanisms of α-synuclein aggregation, a protein linked to Parkinson's disease, with the goal of finding novel therapeutic solutions. During her post-doc in the Itzhaki lab, she studied the structure and function of repeat proteins. She is currently an Oppenheimer Research Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, working between the Mela and Itzhaki labs, where she is designing DNA-protein nanostructures against intracellular targets in cancer. Additionally, she is a Junior Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College.
Speaker: Belkis Merve Akis Yildirim
Talk Title: Vaccinating against "retired" self: an mRNA–LNP immunoprevention strategy for BRCA1-associated triple-negative breast cancer
Abstract: Women carrying BRCA1 mutations face a high lifetime risk of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and prevention still relies largely on prophylactic surgery. We are developing an mRNA lipid-nanoparticle (LNP) vaccine that primes immunity against "retired" self-antigens that are silent in normal adult tissue but aberrantly re-expressed at the earliest pre-malignant stage of BRCA1-driven tumorigenesis. Our single-cell work (Bach et al., Nat Commun 2021) showed that loss of Brca1/p53 drives mammary luminal progenitors, the cell of origin of BRCA1-associated TNBC, into a cell-autonomous alveolar differentiation programme that switches these genes on before any tumour is visible, alongside early establishment of an immunosuppressive niche. This makes the proteins attractive immunoprevention targets to build effector immunity early.
I will present the design of our multi-antigen mRNA-LNP construct together with early proof-of-concept data. This work is at an early stage; I will focus on what the pilot data do and do not yet show and outline the key open questions and next steps.
Biography: Belkis Merve Akis Yıldırım is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Walid Khaled. Her research develops mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) vaccines that target retired self-antigens as a strategy to prevent breast cancer.
She completed her undergraduate training in Medicine at Hacettepe University, Turkey. She went on to earn her doctorate (DPhil) at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, where she developed T-cell-based vaccines against HIV-1 using viral-vectored platforms and antibody targeting vaccines by SpyTag/SpyCatcher virus-like particle technology. She now carries the theme, directing the immune system to recognise and act against a defined antigen, from infectious disease into cancer prevention.
Her home institution is the Vaccine Institute at Hacettepe University, where she works under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Mine Durusu, and her studies abroad have been supported by a scholarship from the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MEB). Her long-term goal is to establish an independent research group at the interface of vaccinology and cancer prevention.
Friday November 6, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Hayley Sharpe, Babraham Institute
Talk Title: Redox signalling in development and immunity
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as H₂O₂ are increasingly recognised as signalling molecules that regulate cellular function through the reversible oxidation of protein cysteine residues. While oxidative stress has long been associated with ageing and disease, it is becoming clear that biological outcomes are determined not simply by ROS abundance, but by the spatial and temporal organisation of redox signalling. Our research seeks to understand how redox signalling is coordinated across biological scales, from whole organisms and tissues to subcellular compartments and individual cysteine residues. Our in vivo mapping of subcellular H₂O₂ dynamics in Drosophila has revealed striking tissue-specific and compartment-specific redox landscapes, uncovering an unexpected layer of developmental regulation encoded by local oxidation patterns. These studies suggest that compartmentalised redox states are a fundamental feature of multicellular organisms, with the potential to shape signalling outputs, cell behaviour and tissue organisation. We have extended this framework to the mammalian immune system, where ROS function not only in host defence but also as critical signalling mediators. Focusing on the receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase CD45, an essential regulator of immune receptor signalling, we have generated new mouse models to investigate the molecular basis and physiological consequences of redox sensing in T cells. Combining in vivo approaches with quantitative proteomics, we identify a novel CD45 substrate and signalling network and demonstrate that mutation of a non-catalytic cysteine alters CD45 redox sensitivity, with consequent effects on T cell activation in vitro and in vivo. Together, these studies reveal how redox signalling is coordinated across biological scales, from tissue- and compartment-specific H₂O₂ dynamics to the modification of individual cysteine residues that control signalling outputs, providing new insight into the mechanisms that generate specificity in development, homeostasis and immune responses.
Biography: Hayley Sharpe is a Senior Group Leader in the Signalling department at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Her PhD was supervised by Dr Sean Munro FRS at the MRC LMB dissecting the properties of transmembrane domains across subcellular compartments. She then moved to the lab of Dr Fred de Sauvage at Genentech in California, USA, as postdoctoral researcher in cancer therapy resistance. She started her lab focusing on protein tyrosine phosphatases as a Wellcome/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow in 2016 and subsequently moved to the Babraham Institute in 2019. Since starting her lab, she has been an EMBO young investigator and a Lister Institute Prize Fellow and currently holds an ERC consolidator grant.
Thursday November 12, 2026, 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Dr Heather W. Pinkett, Northwestern University
Talk Title: Structural and Mechanistic Studies of Bacteria ABC Transporters
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are ubiquitous membrane proteins that couple ATP binding and hydrolysis to the movement of substrates across cellular membranes. In bacterial pathogens, ABC transport systems contribute to nutrient acquisition, environmental adaptation, quorum sensing, biofilm formation, and resistance to host immune defenses, making them important systems for understanding bacterial physiology and potential targets for antimicrobial intervention. A central feature of many bacterial ABC importers is their interaction with substrate-binding proteins (SBPs), which recognize diverse ligands and deliver them to membrane-embedded transporter complexes.
Our work combines structural biology, biophysical approaches and computational analysis to investigate how bacterial ABC transporters recognize substrates and coordinate substrate delivery with the ATPase cycle. Studies of peptide-binding proteins illustrate the diversity of substrate-recognition mechanisms, ranging from the selective recognition of antimicrobial peptides by SapA to the broader peptide specificity of OppA. Complementary structural studies of the Type II transporter Haemophilus influenzae reveal how nucleotide state regulates SBP–transporter interactions. Cryo-electron microscopy structures captured nucleotide-dependent remodeling of the SBP, including an asymmetric partially docked state in which one SBP lobe remains engaged while interactions with the second lobe are disrupted.
Together, these studies highlight the dynamic nature of ABC transporter–SBP interactions and demonstrate how substrate recognition, transporter architecture, and nucleotide-dependent conformational changes are integrated during transport. Understanding these mechanisms provides a framework for predicting transporter function and for developing strategies to manipulate bacterial transport pathways through substrate mimics, transport inhibitors, or transporter-mediated drug delivery.
Biography: TBC
Friday November 13, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Aylin Hanyaloglu, Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College London
Talk Title: From molecules to medicine: decoding GPCR function across scales
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: Models of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling have shifted markedly in recent years. Rather than functioning solely as isolated receptors that activate defined G protein pathways at the plasma membrane, GPCRs are now understood to generate diverse signalling outputs that are regulated with remarkable spatial and temporal precision. This evolving view of the GPCR signalling landscape has provided new insight into disease-associated receptor dysfunction and revealed new possibilities for therapeutic targeting. This seminar will explore GPCR activity across scales, focusing on how receptor organisation in membrane complexes, and signalling from distinct cellular locations shape signalling and physiological outcomes. By considering GPCR function from molecular to cellular levels, I will discuss how spatial organisation contributes to signalling specificity and plasticity. I will also address how pharmacological manipulation of these spatial and temporal features may offer new avenues for modulating GPCR activity in disease.
Biography: Aylin is a Professor in Molecular Medicine where she has led a research group at Imperial since 2007, she is also Divisional Head and Director of the Institute of Reproductive Biology and a Satellite Group Leader at The Francis Crick Institute. She received her BSc in Human Biology from King’s College London, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Endocrinology from the University of Western Australia, via Edinburgh, undertaking postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on identifying fundamental mechanisms regulating activity of distinct G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) including, receptors central to Women’s Health, and nutrient sensing in the gut. Her group has uncovered molecular mechanisms to illustrate the critical role of receptor location and receptor crosstalk, which are applied to diverse physiological and pathophysiological systems, exploiting these cell signalling models to identify new therapeutic strategies.
Friday November 20, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Owen Rackham, University of Southampton
Talk Title: A data-driven exploration of cell fate and state: How can we reprogram cellular phenotypes?
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: The ability to engineer cells has advanced considerably, but systematically identifying how to change their phenotype remains a challenge. This talk explores how molecular data and AI can inform our understanding of cell fate and state and guide cellular reprogramming.
I will describe our progress to date, beginning with Mogrify, a tool we developed that combines gene expression and regulatory network data to predict the transcription factors needed to convert one human cell type into another. Our subsequent single-cell studies of reprogramming revealed routes to cell fates beyond pluripotency. These findings enabled the generation of induced trophoblast stem cells (iTSCs) and informed the development of iBlastoids, providing models to study aspects of early human development.
The talk concludes with a new AI-based model that allows us to predict interventions to alter specific features of a cell’s phenotype while retaining its identity. Together, this work examines how the paths cells take during reprogramming can inform interventions to control cell fate and function.
Biography: Owen Rackham is Professor of AI for the Life Sciences at the University of Southampton, where he leads the Data Driven Biology group. His research combines computational and experimental approaches to understand how cell identity is established and how cellular phenotypes can be changed. He helped develop Mogrify, a computational framework for predicting cellular reprogramming factors, and co-founded the cell and gene therapy company of the same name. His group develops methods that use molecular data and AI to identify interventions that control cell fate and state, with applications in disease modelling and regenerative medicine.
Friday, December 4, 2026, 12:15 - 13:15
Speaker: Aditi Borkar, Nottingham/Liverpool
Talk Title: Cryogenic OrbiSIMS Enables Integrative Modelling of Native RNA Structures Regulating Cellular Health and Disease
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room
Abstract: In her talk, Dr Borkar will present their latest development of cryogenic OrbiSIMS, a solid-state mass spectrometry imaging technique, to overcome longstanding challenges in RNA structural biology. Dr Borkar’s team previously discovered that cryo-OrbiSIMS mass spectra encode information about RNA 3D architecture rather than sequence alone, and when integrated with computational folding algorithms, enabled accurate modelling of RNA secondary and tertiary structures. Using this approach, they determined the first atomic-resolution remodelling of a native human RNA upon HIV infection, and are now investigating viral RNA-mediated pathologies in Arenavirus and Flavivirus infections alongside mRNA vaccine characterisation. These results open exciting new possibilities for structural analysis of previously intractable RNA systems, with direct relevance to the Department’s interests in molecular mechanisms of disease and the rational development of novel therapeutics.
Biography: Dr Aditi N Borkar is an Associate Professor at the University of Liverpool, UK. Her research focusses on high-resolution studies of RNA-mediated disease pathologies in viral infections and rare genetic disorders.
Aditi joined the University of Liverpool in August 2026 as a Senior Lecturer in ISMIB. She previously completed her dual masters in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics from University of Pune in India and trained in biophysical chemistry during her doctoral studies at University of Cambridge, UK with Professor Michele Vendruscolo and Professor Sir Chris Dobson for development of both theoretical and experimental approaches for studying RNA structure, dynamics and interactions. She was awarded the Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship to investigate the structure of a transcriptional activator complex in HIV with Professor Matthias Geyer (Bonn, Germany) and Professor Tom Steitz (Yale, USA) using X-ray Crystallography and Cryo-Electron Microscopy. In 2019, she started her group as a tenure-track Anne McLaren Fellow at University of Nottingham, UK and transitioned to a tenured academic position in 2023.
Aditi's research focusses on high-resolution studies of RNA-mediated disease pathologies in viral infection, rare genetic disorders and antimicrobial resistance. Her team uses an integration of experimental, computational and theoretical approaches encompassing mass spectrometry, molecular simulations and electron microscopy with molecular, cell and viral biology. Aditi recently pioneered cryogenic OrbiSIMS mass spectrometry guided modelling of native RNA structures in solution and in situ, which enabled the team to determine complete remodelling of a native human RNP on HIV infection and that of the HIV 5'UTR between different stages of the viral infection. Currently, Aditi's team is expanding on this toolkit by cryo-correlating with electron microscopy and tomography and orthogonal integration with optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy to study mechanism of neurovirulence in flaviviruses, attenuation in arenavirus, structural role of pathogenic RNA in phase separation during rare genetic disorders, mechanism of antimicrobial resistance and stability of mRNA cargo in therapeutic formulations and room-temperature supply chains.
Keywords: RNA, structural biology, viruses, cryo-OrbiSIMS, mass spectrometry imaging, computational modelling, biophysics
Thursday 10 December 2026, 13:00 - 14:00
Speaker: Professor Peng Zou, Peking University
Talk Title: Genetically encoded proximity labelling for studying spatial biology
Venue: Pharmacology Seminar Room, 13:00 - 14:00
Abstract: The spatial and temporal organization of RNAs and proteins within eukaryotic cells is essential for cellular function. Proximity labeling technologies have greatly expanded our ability to map the molecular composition of subcellular compartments at the omics level, but many existing approaches have limited temporal resolution. In this seminar, I will introduce Lantern, a genetically encoded photocatalytic proximity labeling tool that enables sub-minute, spatially resolved profiling of subcellular RNAs (CAP-seq) and proteins (CAP-MS). Using Lantern, we capture early RNA recruitment during stress granule (SG) assembly and find that m6A-enriched transcripts are rapidly recruited to SGs within minutes of stress induction. In parallel, ER-proximal RNAs show early association with the SG scaffold protein G3BP1, suggesting a connection between translation-associated RNA pools and the initiation of condensate assembly. Complementary proteomic analysis further identifies candidate RNA-binding proteins associated with distinct subcellular RNA populations. Together, these studies reveal previously inaccessible temporal features of RNA relocalization and suggest coordinated roles for RNA modification, subcellular organization, and biomolecular condensate assembly.
Biography: Peng Zou is currently a professor at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Peking University. He is jointly appointed as a principal investigator at the Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules Center, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences. Peng received his B.S. degree in Chemistry with a double major in Physics from PKU in 2007, and his PhD in Biological Chemistry from MIT in 2012. Following his postdoc training at Harvard University, Peng joined the faculty at PKU in 2015. His lab focuses on inventing chemical tools for the spatiotemporally resolved mapping of biomolecules and biophysical signaling that underlie neuronal functions. This mainly follows three lines of efforts: free radical-based chemical probes for profiling proteins and RNAs in neurons, optical reporters for neural activities, and directed evolution platforms that drive technological advancements in the above two fronts. Peng is the recipient of the Life Chemistry Young Investigator Award from Chinese Chemistry Society (2023), C&EN's Talented 12 Award from American Chemical Society (2019), the OKeanos-CAPA Young Investigator Award at the Chemical and Biology Interface (2020). Since 2024, he is an associate editor of ACS Bioconjugate Chemistry.
Please e-mail Mark Howarth (mh2186@cam.ac.uk) if you wish to schedule a meeting with Peng following the seminar.