Dr Emma Anderson

Associate Professor

Email:

Phone: 024 765 50578

Office: D022

Research Clusters

Research Interests

Viruses do not encode their own protein synthesis machinery, but must hijack that of their host cell. Viral mRNAs are vastly outnumbered by cellular mRNAs and therefore many viruses have evolved novel mechanisms to preferentially recruit ribosomes. We are interested in the mechanisms by which retroviruses such as HIV are able to recruit ribosomes to their RNAs at the right time to make the proteins they need for new viral particles.

Due to the compact nature of their genomes, many viruses encode several proteins from one mRNA. We are also interested in the mechanisms that viruses employ to direct translation of different proteins from one RNA molecule.

Understanding of these novel translation mechanisms will not only open up new avenues for treatment of viral infection, but also shed light on cellular protein synthesis. Loss of control of cellular translation has been shown to contribute to diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Biography

After graduating from Oxford in 1997 with a first class degree in Biochemistry, I moved to Cambridge to study for my PhD under the supervision of Professor Richard Jackson. My work on the translation of human rhinovirus RNA was the beginning of my interest in translation mechanisms and viruses. In 2001 I moved to The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr Stephen Mayfield on light-regulated translation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. I returned to Cambridge in 2004 to work with Professor Andrew Lever in the Department of Medicine on the regulation of translation of HIV-1. In 2007 I was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Virology at Warwick, where I have continued my interest in translation mechanisms of important viruses such as HIV and influenza.

Publications

Alford, Justine E., Marongiu, Michela, Watkins, Gemma L. and Anderson, Emma C. (2016) Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) Gag is trafficked in an AP-3 and AP-5 dependent manner. PLoS One, 11 (7). e0158941. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158941 ISSN 1932-6203.

Ray, Swagat and Anderson, Emma C. (2016) Stimulation of translation by human Unr requires cold shock domains 2 and 4, and correlates with poly(A) binding protein interaction. Scientific Reports, 6 . 22461. doi:10.1038/srep22461 ISSN 2045-2322.

Anderson, Emma C. and Ó Catnaigh, Pól (2015) Regulation of the expression and activity of Unr in mammalian cells. Biochemical Society Transactions, 43 (6). pp. 1241-1246. doi:10.1042/BST20150165 ISSN 0300-5127.

Ray, Swagat, Ó Catnaigh, Pól and Anderson, Emma C. (2015) Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression by Unr. Biochemical Society Transactions, 43 (3). pp. 323-327. doi:10.1042/BST20140271 ISSN 0300-5127.

Alford, Justine E., Gumbs, Jade and Anderson, Emma C. (2014) A new role for clathrin adaptor proteins 1 and 3 in lipoplex trafficking. PLoS ONE, Volume 9 (Number 3). Article number e91429. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091429 ISSN 1932-6203.

Wise, Helen M., Barbezange, Cyril, Jagger, Brett W., Dalton, Rosa Maria, Gog, Julia R., Curran, Martin D., Taubenberger, Jeffery, Anderson, Emma C. and Digard, Paul (2011) Overlapping signals for translational regulation and packaging of influenza A virus segment 2. Nucleic Acids Research, Vol.39 (No.17). pp. 7775-7790. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023630 ISSN 1362-4962.

Wise, Helen M., Foeglein, Agnes, Sun, Jiechao, Dalton, Rosa Maria, Patel, Sheetal, Howard, Wendy, Anderson, Emma C., Barclay, Wendy S. and Digard, Paul (2009) A complicated message: identification of a novel PB1-related protein translated from influenza A virus segment 2 mRNA. Journal of Virology, Vol.83 (No.16). pp. 8021-8031. doi:10.1128/JVI.00826-09 ISSN 0022-538X.

Groom, Harriet C. T., Anderson, Emma C. and Lever, Andrew M. L. (2009) Rev: beyond nuclear export. Journal of General Virology, Vol.90 (Part 6). pp. 1303-1318. ISSN 0022-1317 doi:10.1099/vir.0.011460-0

Groom, Harriet C. T., Anderson, Emma C., Dangerfield, John A. and Lever, Andrew M. L. (2009) Rev regulates translation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNAs. Journal of General Virology, Vol.90 (Part 5). pp. 1141-1147. doi:10.1099/vir.0.007963-0 ISSN 0022-1317.

Anderson, Emma C., Hunt, Sarah L. and Jackson, Richard J. (2007) Internal initiation of translation from the human rhinovirus-2 IRES requires the binding of Unr to two distinct sites on the 5' UTR. Journal of General Virology, Vol.88 (No.11). pp. 3043-3052. doi:10.1099/vir.0.82463-0 ISSN 0022-1317.

Research Projects

Title	Funder	Award start	Award end
Unr - master regulator of mRNA translation	BBSRC	01 Jun 2012	31 May 2015
Regulation and translation of HIV type-1 RNA by the viral Gag protein	MRC	01 Dec 2008	31 Jan 2012

Teaching / Student Supervision