Heparan sulfate in lung development and hypoplasia

Sophie Thompson’s paper on the expression of different structures in heparan sulfate in the developing lung and a model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia is now published in BMC Dev Biol. Building on previous work, published in JBC, which characterises in depth the sugar structures recognised by a set of ‘phage display antibodies, this paper provides a very exciting view of the the dynamics of HS in development and disease. HS structures change quite radically in the course of lung development. Intriguingly, in the model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia, HS is really rather “messy”. One wonders if the lung hypoplasia and pulmonary hypertension associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia are not the result of an initial subtle change in HS biosynthesis, which then has a wide-ranging, runaway effect on HS structure due to inappropriate feedback loops from the myriad of HS-bionding effectors that regulate lung development.

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Proteomics seminar

Monday 11 July
1pm
SR2, Life Sciences Building

Targeted proteomics from proteins to proteome maps:
potential and bottlenecks
Dr Paola Picotti
Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Biology, ETH Zuerich, Zuerich. Switzerland

Paola Picotti obtained her PhD from the University of Padova, Italy. In 2007 she joined Ruedi Aebersold’s group at ETH Zuerich, where she worked as post-doctoral fellow. Her research focused on the development of targeted proteomic techniques based on selected reaction monitoring (SRM) and their application to the analysis of biological systems. She was also involved in the development of approaches and resources to promote the collection and dissemination of SRM assays and their extension to whole proteomes.

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ICMAT is over

ICMAT finished on Friday; the symposium on Frontiers in Optical Bio-imaging and Microscopy was very enjoyable. The Symposium got off to a good start on Monday, with speakers keeping to time and good questions from the audience. Happily, Jon Hobley and Martin Lear had secured a budget for refreshments, which was strategically deployed on the fist evening over posters. This helped the core of attendees and the speakers to mix and ensured a vibrant symposium for the next three days. The “graveyard shift”, the last session of the symposium, was well attended and had some very stimulating talks from very different fields. So good, we all went off for a beer after to discuss model organisms and imaging!

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