Prof Aga Gambus

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham

Scientific Background

Professor Aga Gambus moved to Cancer Sciences in 2011 to start her independent research. She was awarded MRC Career Development Award and Birmingham Fellowship supporting her research into regulation of DNA replication through small protein modifiers: ubiquitin and SUMO.

Aga’s group discovered the first elements of the mechanism of replication machinery disassembly at termination of DNA replication. Due to this exciting novel discoveries Aga was awarded the Lister Institute Research Award in 2015 and Wellcome Trust Investigator Award in 2019 to continue her research on replisome unloading.

Scientific Inspiration

Maria Sklodowska Curie – She was a Polish lady who emigrated to France, was a brilliant scientist, married a scientist, had family, played an important role in her community… I can see a lot of parallels between Maria and me and I aspire to be as good as she was.

Research Groups

Chromosomal Replication

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Student-centred, understanding, outcome-oriented

Provision of Training

I prefer to take responsibility for your technical training at first, leading to more independence later. Sometimes other members of the lab have more expertise in particular technique and they take over the day-to-day supervision, but I am always the main direction provider.

Progression Monitoring and Management

I like to be kept up to date, and will expect to see evidence of method development/data generation results on a weekly basis with any needed advice. Once a month we have an overview meeting with troubleshooting and every 6 months a progress review.

Communication

The team has a WhatsApp group chat with which we regularly communicate during the week and weekends. Whilst I expect you to keep up with my/ team communications I will expect you to manage your work/life balance.

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me:

In a group meeting

At least once per week

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once per week

In year 2 of PhD study

At least once per fortnight

In year 3 of PhD study

At least once per fortnight

These meetings will be mainly face to face, and I am usually contactable for an instant response on every working day.

Work Pattern

The timing of work in my lab is completely flexible, and (other than attending pre-arranged meetings), I expect students to manage their own time. At the beginning of training I expect students to work in the lab at the time when other people are present so that they can provide any needed advice and help.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 2 weeks' notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5000 words.

Project Details

Prof Gambus is the supervisor on the below project:

Roles of ubiquitylation during eukaryotic DNA replication

Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Marco Saponaro

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes:

Understanding the Rules of Life (Structural Biology)
Integrated Understanding of Health (Ageing)

No longer accepting applications

Project Outline

DNA replication is a highly evolutionarily conserved process, however there is still much to discover about how eukaryotes regulate genome duplication. Perturbations in DNA replication lead to genomic instability, which drives aging but also cancer development. Over the last 10 years we have been elucidating how ubiquitylation drives the disassembly of replication machinery during DNA replication process and how dysregulation of this process can affect genome stability. Due to ours, and others, work we have now much better understanding of this fundamental process, but also a better appreciation that the posttranslational modification by ubiquitin plays a key regulatory function during the process of DNA replication. The aim of this project is therefore to explore wider role of ubiquitylation during DNA replication process: identify novel ubiquitylated substrates, understand the function of such ubiquitylation, explore whether it leads to removal of the ubiquitylated proteins by p97 segregase or whether it is the deubiquitylation that is essential to maintain the stability of the genome.

To deliver this aim we will use a combination of two model systems. The discovery science will be delivered in cell free Xenopus laevis egg extract system, while the impact on genome stability will be analysed in immortalized human cell lines. The student will have therefore the chance to gain a wide spectrum of expertise spanning different model systems and both biochemistry and cell biology techniques.

Techniques

recombinant protein expression and purification.
protein biochemistry using Xenopus laevis egg extract (chromatin isolation, western blotting, immunoprecipitation, immunodepletion, radioactive nucleotide DNA incorporation).
cell biology (tissue culture, immunofluorescence, DNA fibre assay, FACS, biochemistry).
structural biology.

Prof Gambus is also co-supervisor on a project with Dr Paloma Garcia.