UConn Partnership for Excellence in Structural Biology

Title: “Prophage terminase with tRNase activity sensitizes Salmonella enterica to oxidative stress”, Authors and Journal: Uppalapati et al., Science Volume 384, Issue 6691, 100-105, April 2024

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Josh Berthiaume will lead a discussion of “Disc and Actin Associated Protein 1 influences attachment in the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia” by Stelle-Ogus et al., 2022.

Sønderholm, M., Kragh, K. N., Koren, K., Jakobsen, T. H., Darch, S. E., Alhede, M., Jensen, P. Ø., Whiteley, M., Kühl, M., & Bjarnsholt, T. (2017). Pseudomonas aeruginosa Aggregate Formation in an Alginate Bead Model System Exhibits In Vivo-Like Characteristics. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 83(9), e00113-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00113-17

Title: “Microbiome Modulation of Respiratory Epithelial Innate Immunity”

Emma Watson
Assistant Professor, Department of Systems Biology
University of Massachusetts, Chan Medical School
Host: Andrei Alexandrescu

Chromosomal structure and function in cancer

Over 90% of cancer genomes have abnormal chromosomal composition, deviating (often significantly) from the normal 46 chromosomes in healthy cells. Chromosomes can be gained, lost, broken, and fused together during tumor genome evolution, with genomes ultimately converging on a set of features that are enriched in a tumor type-specific manner, for instance, +1q and +8q in breast cancer. We utilize in vitro approaches to model karyotype evolution in cancer and build tumor genomes in the lab from healthy diploid genomes. We use these models to uncover structural facilitators and functional drivers of these common chromosomal abnormalities in cancer.

About Dr. Watson:
Dr. Emma V. Watson obtained her B.S. in Biophysics from UConn, studying protein folding with Dr. Andrei Alexandrescu, and received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from UMass Chan Medical School studying metabolic gene network regulation with Dr. A. J. Marian Walhout. For her thesis work, Dr. Watson received an American Heart Association fellowship and the Harold M. Weintraub Award. Dr. Watson was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Stephen J. Elledge’s lab at Harvard Medical School, where she uncovered oncogenic roles of chromosomal abnormalities in cancer. Dr. Watson opened her lab at UMass Chan Medical School in 2022 where she focuses on cancer genome structure and function.

Publications:

Chromosome evolution screens recapitulate tissue-specific tumor aneuploidy patterns

An aneuploidy epistasis map reveals metabolic vulnerabilities associated with supernumerary chromosomes in cancer

Watson Lab website