Newcastle University

Research Interests

High-throughput yeast genetics, Robot technologies, Yeast telomere biology, DNA damage response.

Other Expertise

Microbiological and molecular biological techniques, biochemistry, protein expression and purification.

Current Work

I have set up and further developed a high-throughput yeast genetics facility. This is being used to perform experiments relating to yeast telomeres and in particular the response to damaged telomeres. This repsonse is related to the DNA damage response. My work has identified novel genes involved in these processes.

Future Research

I will continue to develop the robot facility to increase throughput, improve data capture, analysis and presentation. I will also follow up genes identified in previous experiments, with reductionist molecular biology, genetics and biochemical experiments.

Research Roles

My roles are 1] to use high-throughput yeast genetics to study yeast telomeres and 2] to make robotic techniques for high-throughput yeast genetics experiments accessible and easy for all members of our laboratory (and also to collaborating scientists).

Postgraduate Supervision

My position involves regular and frequent supervision of many members of our laboratory and also visiting scientists. This obviously includes postgraduates.

Funding

My position is funded as part of the CISBAN grant:
http://www.cisban.ac.uk/

Industrial Relevance

The experience of setting up and running a robot facility is relevant to industry.

Patents

N/A

Projects

• Development and application of high-throughput approaches for yeast genetics
  Project Leader(s): David Lydall

• Chang H, Lawless C, Addinall SG, Oexle S, Taschuk M, Wipat A, Wilkinson DJ, Lydall D. Genome-Wide Analysis to Identify Pathways Affecting Telomere-Initiated Senescence in Budding Yeast. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 2011, 1(3), 197-208.