Elton Zeqiraj

Elton was a PhD student from 2005 to 2009. During his time in Dundee, Elton focused on the structural biology of the LKB1 tumour suppressor complex and provided the first snapshot of a pseudokinase—kinase pair in action. 

After leaving the DVA lab, Elton went on to do postdoctoral work in the lab of Dr. Frank Sicheri at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, supported by an HFSP Long Term Fellowship and a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2016, Elton started up his lab at the University of Leeds to study ubiquitin signalling. His current research is funded by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and The Royal Society and a University Academic Fellowship from the University of Leeds. Lab website: http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fbsez     

Helge moved with his Sir Henry Dale Fellowship to the laboratory of Prof So Iwata and Dr Konstantinos Beis in 2013. In 2015, Helge was recruited as an Independent Investigator in the Division of Molecular Microbiology (http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/research/mmb). In April 2016, Helge became a Royal Society and Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow. As principal investogator, Helge and his lab study carbohydrate active enzymes involved in the nucleotide sugar and cell wall biogenesis in Streptococci (http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/helge-dorfmueller).

Francesco (Frank) Rao

Francesco (Frank) joined the the DVA lab in 2002 as a Masters student. During this time Frank worked on enzymes involved in carbohydrate synthesis and degradation and helped establish the molecular biology and enzymology capabilities in the lab. Frank stayed with the lab as an Industrial CASE (Syngenta) PhD student (2003-2006) investigating the structure and function of a number of glycosidases including initial studies into the mechanism and inhibition of eukaryotic O-GlcNAc hydrolysis. Examples of Frank’s work can be found in references 49, 55, 68, 74, 80, 84, 123, 132.

Supported by an EMBO Long Term Fellowship and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Science Fellowship, Frank left Scotland to work in the lab of Prof. Stephen Withers and Prof. Natalie Strynadka at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. In 2010, Frank returned back to Scotland with a Marie Curie International Reintegration grant and a FEBS Return-to-Europe Fellowship. Examples of Frank’s work during this time can be found in references 138 and 142.

In 2012, Frank joined a DVA lab spin-out (GlycoBioChem Ltd) as the managing director (http://www.glycobiochem.com). In 2013, Frank was recruited as the CSO of DC Biosciences Ltd, a contract research organisation (CRO) specialising in quantitative proteomics (http://www.dcbiosciences.com). 

I was a post-doc in the group of Prof. Daan van Aalten between 2013 and 2014 when I was studying hypothetical protein O-GlcNAcylation in a thermophilic bacterium Thermobaculum terrenum (published in JBC). After my time with in the DvA lab I moved to the group of Dr Sarah Coulthurst at the University of Dundee to study bacterial cell-cell competition by Type VI Secretion System. Currently I work in a biotechnology company APS Biocontrol Ltd where I develop bacteriophage-based approaches for crop protection and produce preservation.

I joined the DVA lab in September 2011 to work on neuronal protein O-GlcNAcylation. Prior to going the DVA lab my research area centred on understanding molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Building on past research experience I worked on a number of projects investigation protein O-GlcNAcylation in ageing and Alzheimer’s disease as well as investigating the potential of OGA inhibitors as novel therapeutics for neurodegeneration. As part of this, I also worked on developing the O-GlcNAcase mutant as a substrate trap for enriching O-GlcNAcylated proteins. In 2013 I moved to the University of Bradford to take up the position of Lecturer in Therapeutics in the School of Pharmacy and Medicals Sciences. Research in my  lab continues to focus on molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s and motor neuron diseases http://www.bradford.ac.uk/research/our-researchers/ritchie-williamson.php

Alexander Striebeck

As a PhD student in Daan’s lab, I was working on the characterisation of a glycosyltransferase complex involved in the formation of the mannan layer of the fungal cell wall. The work included recombinant gene expression, X-ray crystallography and enzyme assays.

Afterwards I became a post-doc at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory (CRL, Copenhagen, Denmark) where I studied enzymes involved in the synthesis and degradation of starch in barley. Since 2016 I am a Scientist at CRL working on an accelerated project.

Yuanwei Zhang

I obtained my bachelor degree in 2011 from Anhui Normal University, then I studied in Prof. Ling Lu’s lab at Nanjing Normal University (2011-2015) to investigate the relationship between palmitoylation and calcium signalling in Aspergillus nidulans. In Aug 2015, I joined Daan’s lab as a Joint PhD student sponsored by China Scholarship Council. My current project focused on is identifying potential fungal cell wall targets of the opportunistic pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus by using genetic and structural biology techniques.

Mehmet Gundogdu

I joined the van Aalten lab as a PhD student in September 2013. My interests lie in the unusual cytoplasmic glycosylation machineries, including O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes OGT and OGA. My main project focuses on characterisation of recently identified OGT disease mutants. To that end, I use enzymology, protein crystallography, cell biology and fly genetics. Before joining van Aalten lab, I obtained my BSc in Biochemistry (Hons) from the University of Dundee. 

Karim Rafie

I studied at the TU Dortmund University/Germany receiving both my Bachelor’s (2010) and Master’s (2013) degree in Chemical Biology. I joined the lab as an exchange student in 2012 to work on my Master’s thesis project for up to a year before joining the lab as a PhD student in October of 2013. From the beginning, I was interested in understanding the mechanism by which OGT, a conserved eukaryotic nucleocytoplasmic glycosyltransferase, modifies its substrates and what role its activity plays in development. One of my projects is focused on designing / identifying a potent and selective OGT inhibitor to probe OGT activity in physiological systems. In my second project, I utilise biochemical and structural methods to identify and characterise the binding modes by which OGT recognises its substrates.

I am interested in the intricate networks and molecular mechanisms that orchestrate eukaryotic life. I graduated with B.Sc in Biology and M.Sc in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (2006, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest) and obtained my PhD in Molecular Cell Biology for investigating DNA repair mechanism and dUTP metabolism in Drosophila (2010, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest). Afterwards, I joined the Muller lab (Division of Cell and Developmental Biology, SLS, Dundee) where I developed a strong toolset in Drosophila genetics and imaging. From February 2014, I have been a PDRA in Daan van Aalten‘s group, where my research focuses on the biological role of protein O-GlcNAcylation using Drosophila and transgenic mouse model systems.