MRes in Biosciences:
The AGAPE Marie Curie Early Stage Training programme offered specific training at Masters level through the MRes in Advanced Genetic Analysis. The key element of the training was to develop an integrative approach to research in the post-genomic biology of animals, plants and microbes. The taught component comprised of 40 credits core skills, and 40 credits of specialist topics, selected from 19 available modules. The research project component comprises of technically distinct but complementary projects (40 credits and 60 credits) supervised by members of the AGAPE network. Eleven fellows have received training:
Andrea Kunova - Slovakia
Term of Fellowship: 09/2005 - 09/2006
Research Project Titles: The conservation of natural antisense transcripts in Arabidopsis and rice. (40 Credits); The expression analysis of convergently overlapping genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD student at University of Leeds in the Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology with Prof. Peter Meyer.
Publications:
Adamo, A.; Pinney, J.W.; Kunova, A.; Westhead, D.R.; Meyer, P. Heat stress enhances the accumulation of polyadenylated mitochondrial transcripts in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoSONE 3: e2889. (2008) http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002889
Lilian Wambua - Kenya
Term of Fellowship: 09/2005 - 09/2006
Research Project Titles: Pathogenic Protozoa: Exploring metabolism by metabolic reconstruction and online database queries in search of novel drug targets. (40 Credits); In vitro demonstration of apoptotic-death in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and its relevance to malaria drug discovery. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD Student at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Kenya. Lilian is focusing on the role of plasma lipids and endotoxic shock in the pathology following T.congolense infection in mice. http://www.genomics.liv.ac.uk/tryps/assoc.html
Publications:
Pinney, J.W.; Papp, B.; Hyland, C.; Wambua, L.; Westhead, D.R.; McConkey, G.A. Metabolic reconstruction and analysis for parasite genomes Trends in Parasitology 23: 548-554. (2007)
doi:10.1016/j.pt.2007.08.013
Deena Gendoo - Mauritius
Term of Fellowship: 09/2006 - 09/2007
Research Project Titles: Detection of novel chemical inhibitors for Escherichia coli Ribonuclease E using virtual high-throughput screening and De Novo design. (40 Credits); Detection of common differentially expressed genes from microarray data of the small intestine carinoma, gastric, and colorectal cancers.(60 Credits)
Current position: From 2007-08 Research Assistant at Science and Technology Research Center, The American University in Cairo. Research Assistant in Bioinformatics at the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, (05/08 - 08/08). Currently taking a PhD in Bioinformatics, McGill University, Canada.
Publications:
Gendoo, D.M.; Mahmoud, M.; El-Hefnawi.; Werner, M.; Siam, R . Correlating novel variable and conserved motifs in the Hemagglutinin protein with significant biological functions. Virology Journal (5) 91, (2008) http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2553082
Geoffrey Maher - Ireland
Term of Fellowship: 09/2006 - 09/2007
Research Project Titles: A mitochondrial DNA analysis of ethnic groups in Myanmar. (40 Credits); Identification of the ORF 57 response element within KSHV transcripts. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD in molecular medicine at the University of Manchester, supervised by Dr Forbes Manson and Prof Graeme Black. Characterizing a gene, tmem114, associated with congenital cataract.
Brendan Mullaney - Ireland
Term of Fellowship: 09/2006 - 09/2007
Research Project Titles: Regulation of actinorhodin production in Streptomyces coelicolor. (40 Credits); Investigating the effect of the modification of aptamers of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein from foot-and-mouth disease virus. (60 Credits)
Current position: Genetic technologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital Molecular Genetics Laboratory.
Daniel Oropeza - Mexico
Term of Fellowship: 09/2006 - 09/2007
Research Project Titles: Recombineering of the Caenorhabditis elegans homeobox transcription factors ceh-33 and ceh-34 and the protein deacetylase sir-2.1. (40 Credits); Exploring the role of the Caenorhabditis elegans aminopeptidase P and auromycin sensitive aminopeptidase in the ageing process. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD student, Department of Cell Biology at McGill University, Canada. Working in Dr. Marko Horb's lab studying molecular organogenesis of the pancreas.
Sanchez Guzman - Spain
Term of Fellowship: 09/2006 - 09/2007
Research Project Titles: Functional characterization of ceh-33 and ceh-34 (40 Credits); Expression and purification of NS2 cytosolic domain from the JFH1 clone (60 Credits)
Current position: Starting a PhD on molecular biology in the Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa in Madrid, one of the most prestigious research centres in Spain.
Ana Hidalgo Sastre - Spain
Term of Fellowship: 09/2007 - 09/2008
Project Title: Characterisation of a Hepatisis B virus core protein based vaccine platform. (40 Credits); Multivalent interactions can stimulate rapid cleavage of RNA by the Rnase E of Escherichia coli independently of 5' -end sensing. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD student in the department of Developmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester. I work in the Michael Smith Building supervised by Dr. Keith Brennan. I am investigating the crosstalk between Wnt/Notch signalling pathways during mammalian development.
Emma Walsh - Ireland
Term of Fellowship: 09/2007 - 02/2008
Current position: Emma received training in Bioscience Core Skills 2, Chromosomal and Molecular Basis of Genetic Disorders and Reproductive Genetics and Stem Cells but did not undertake research elements of the programme.
Daniel Opi - Kenya
Term of Fellowship: 09/2007 - 09/2008
Project Title: Biomass composition of plasmodium falciparum to aid in the construction of a genome-scale metabolic model. (40 Credits); A study of Genetic variants important in regulating the TH2 immune response in human hookworm infection. (60 Credits)
Current position: Started a PhD working on complement receptor 1 (CR1) polymorphisms in malaria primarily based in the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust labs in Kenya working with Dr. Thomas Williams, also in Edinburgh working with Dr. Alex Rowe and in Oxford under the supervision of Dr. Dominic Kwiatkowski.
Katrein Schaefer - Germany
Term of Fellowship: 09/2007 - 09/2008
Project Title: Phylogenetic analyses of Necator americanus from different regions. (40 Credits); Foot-and-mouth disease virus replication. Development of an in vitro Uridylylation assay. (60 Credits)
Current position: PhD in Mucosal Immunology at the University of York