Macrophages are in the front line of our immune response, sending out powerful inflammatory signals to attract immune cells to the site of infection. Since the inflammatory response needs to be strong enough to successfully resolve infections, but not so strong as to drive excessive tissue damage, macrophages must be able to rapidly change their gene expression profile. Jeanne Fesselet is investigating the role of a protein called TTP in macrophage gene expression. TTP regulates mRNA decay specifically in immune cells, but precisely how it does so or how TTP itself is regulated is currently unknown. A better understanding of how TTP regulates macrophage-specific gene expression could lead to novel therapeutic targets in inflammatory disease.
Jeanne grew up in the Netherlands and finished her integrated Master’s degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She first joined the Perutz as an Erasmus+ trainee in 2020 and has been working towards her PhD in the Kovarik lab since 2021.
Cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes are termed aneuploid. Aneuploidy can lead to developmental disorders such as Down Syndrome and is one of the most prevalent hallmarks of cancer. Changes in the number of chromosomes lead to subtle changes in gene expression, but in hundreds of genes simultaneously. Often decreasing the level of fitness of the cell or organism, these changes are commonly seen as an adaptation mechanism. “I am studying the consequences of aneuploidy and how it can be an advantage in the context of drug resistance or a high stress environment”, Manuela Sophie Koller, known by Sophie, explains her project. Sophie has engineered a large collection of aneuploid yeast strains to investigate their phenotypes. Her work will provide insights into one of the most common mechanisms of cellular adaptation, determining how subtle expression changes in hundreds of genes simultaneously can result in strong phenotypes.
Sophie was born and raised in Vienna. After completing her degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna, she joined the Campbell lab for her Master’s thesis and, since 2021, she has been studying for her PhD.