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Staff Profile
Dr Martyna Pastok
Research Associate
- Email: martyna.pastok@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/cellcyclestructuralbiology/
- Address: CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit
Paul O’Gorman Building
Medical School
Newcastle University
Framlington Place
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 4HH
Background
I am originally from Poznan (Poland), where I completed my MSci in Biotechnology. During my studies I had a great opportunity to study also in Edinburgh for 5 months as an exchange student within Socrates Erasmus Programme. I really enjoyed my time there so I decided to come back to UK to Liverpool to complete my PhD at University of Liverpool as EST Marie Curie Fellow in Institute of Integrative Biology. Since 2012 I work in Newcastle as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Structural Biology group in NICR. I am working on multiprotein assemblies involved in cell cycle regulation, being particularly interested in structure-dictated function and recently also in link between cell cycle and transcription.
I am passionate in promoting STEM and participate in public engagement events whenever I can. I organised some activities within British Science Week, gave talks within ‘Inspiring the Future’ initiative and participated in an event L'Oreal Woman in Science. Additionally I was part of the organiser team to bring Pint of Science to Newcastle. We organised successfully events 2 years in a row and planning some more.
I am passionate in promoting STEM and participate in public engagement events whenever I can. I organised some activities within British Science Week, gave talks within ‘Inspiring the Future’ initiative and participated in an event L'Oreal Woman in Science. Additionally I was part of the organiser team to bring Pint of Science to Newcastle. We organised successfully events 2 years in a row and planning some more.
Areas of expertise
- Structure biology
- Biochemistry
- Cell cycle
Google scholar: Click here.
Research
I am working on multiprotein assemblies involved in cell cycle regulation, being particularly interested in structure-dictated function and recently also in link between cell cycle and transcription. My main area of expertise are protein production and purification, both from E. coli and insect cells, protein crystallography, biophysical and biochemical assays to analyse proteins, protein:protein and protein:ligand interactions, like SPR, ITC, MST, HTRF, DSF etc...
Teaching
I am supervising undergraduate and Master students during their lab based projects. I am always looking forward to work with people and to show them how science can be exciting.
Publications
- Hallett ST, Pastok MW, Morgan RML, Wittner A, Blundell KLIM, Felletar I, Wedge SR, Prodromou C, Noble MEM, Pearl LH, Endicott JA. Differential Regulation of G1 CDK Complexes by the Hsp90-Cdc37 Chaperone System. Cell Reports 2017, 21(5), 1386-1398.
- Pastok MW, Prescott MC, Dart C, Murray PA, Rees HH, Fisher MJ. Structural diversity of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunit in Caenorhabditis elegans. Cellular Signalling 2013, 25(1), 168-177.
- Elliott PR, Irvine AF, Jung HS, Tozawa K, Pastok MW, Picone R, Badyal SK, Basran J, Rudland PS, Barraclough R, Lian LY, Bagshaw CR, Kriajevska M, Barsukov IL. Asymmetric Mode of Ca2+-S100A4 Interaction with Nonmuscle Myosin IIA Generates Nanomolar Affinity Required for Filament Remodeling. Structure 2012, 20(4), 654-666.
- Elliott PR, Liu H, Pastok MW, Grossmann GJ, Rigden DJ, Clague MJ, Urbé S, Barsukov IL. Structural variability of the ubiquitin specific protease DUSP-UBL double domains. FEBS Letters 2011, 585(21), 3385–3390.
- Kiwerska K, Rydzanicz M, Kram A, Pastok MW, Antkowiak A, Domagala W, Szyfter K. Mutational analysis of CDKN2A gene in a group of 390 larynx cancer patients. Molecular Biology Reports 2010, 37(1), 325-332.
- Pastok MW, Murray PA, Dart C, Rees HH, Fisher MJ. Studies on the C. elegans Protein Kinase A (PK-A) Catalytic and Regulatory Subunit Genes. In: International Worm Meeting (2007). 2007, UCLA.