Amy Buck earned her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studied RNA-protein dynamics in the RNase P ribozyme in the lab of Prof. Norman Pace. Wanting to apply her RNA background to the field of virology, she joined the Division of Pathway Medicine and the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the University of Edinburgh in 2005. She worked for 1.5 years as postdoctoral researcher to develop nucleic acid biosensors while securing an Incoming Marie Curie Fellowship to focus on the biology and functions of microRNAs in viral infection. In 2009, she was awarded a BBSRC New Investigator award and an Advanced Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh to build her research group within the Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution. In 2012 was awareded a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship to investigate small RNA regulation in viral infection and to develop a new line of research in RNA secretion in helminth models.
Vesicle and RNA Secretion by Helminths: At the Host Interface
Thursday, 28 September 2017 at 13:30
Add to Calendar ▼2017-09-28 13:30:002017-09-28 14:30:00Europe/LondonVesicle and RNA Secretion by Helminths: At the Host InterfaceExtracellular Vesicles 2017 in Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKCripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
The transport of RNA within extracellular vesicles (EVs) has been proposed as a means of cell-to-cell communication within an organism and a mechanism of cross-species communication. We study the functions of EVs and their RNA cargos in helminths, which are parasitic worms that naturally infect plants and animals, including ¼ of the human population. Helminths have co-evolved with their hosts’ immune systems for hundreds of millions of years and establish chronic infections through the secretion of bioactive molecules that modulate host cells. Helminth secretion products contain EVs that we have shown can suppress innate immune responses in vitro and in vivo. Proteomic analyses of the EVs derived from Heligomosomoides polygyrus, a gastrointestinal nematode that naturally infects mice, suggest these derive from the endocytic pathway and also reveal the presence of a newly evolved Argonaute protein in the EVs. Small RNA sequencing analyses demonstrate that miRNAs and Y RNAs are present in the EVs, but the dominant class of vesicular small RNA contains 5’triphosphates, most likely as a result of synthesis by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. A subset of these 5’ triphosphate nematode small RNAs are detected in mouse cells and l will discuss our recent work investigating their origins and properties.
Add to Calendar ▼2017-09-28 13:30:002017-09-28 14:30:00Europe/LondonVesicle and RNA Secretion by Helminths: At the Host InterfaceExtracellular Vesicles 2017 in Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKCripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, UKSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
