About event
We are proud to host Dr. Fatima Gebauer and Dr. Juan Valcarcel, group leaders from CRG Barcelona. Both guests will deliver scientific presentations and join us for interactive talk under the series My Life in Science, where the couple will discuss with CEITEC PhD students and postdoc the opportunities and challenges of dual career in science. Fatima and Juan are married couple, both excellent scientists, group leaders and inspiring personalities who devoted their life to cancer research and to mentoring and supporting of junior researchers.
12.00 - 13.00 Dr. Fatima Gebauer: RNA Binding Protein UNR/SCDE1
13.00 - 14.00 Dr. Juan Valcarcel: Networks for Alternative Splicing in Cancer
14.00 - 15.00 My Life in Science - interactive talk with Dr. Fatima Gebauer and Dr. Juan Valcarcel
Dr. Fatima Gebauer
Fátima Gebauer received her PhD in 1990 from the Autónoma University of Madrid, and performed postdocs in the labs of Joel Richter (UMAss, USA) and Matthias Hentze (EMBL, Germany). In 2000, she obtained a staff scientist position at EMBL, and in 2002 an independent position at the CRG (Barcelona, Spain), where she is Group Leader, Coordinator of the Graduate Program, Chair of the Training Group, and member of the Board of Directors of the UPF Doctorate School. Fátima is EMBO member and editor of RNA. Her team is interested in mechanisms of translational control by RNA binding proteins (RBPs), how translation is interconnected with other cellular processes and how RBP de-regulation leads to disease. She is currently investigating functions of conserved RBPs in human cancer using melanoma as a model system.
Lecture Topic: RNA Binding Protein UNR/CSDE1
"RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are gaining attention in the oncology field for their potential to regulate essentially every hallmark of tumor development. However, only a few RBPs have been shown to play roles in cancer progression, in part because post-transcriptional regulation is an under-investigated aspect in cancer research. My talk will focus on the RNA binding protein UNR/ CSDE1, a protein conserved from Drosophila to humans for which we found a role selectively in metastasis. I will explain our efforts to untangle the molecular mechanisms of UNR function, and how we are trying to extend the list of RBPs involved in metastasis using unbiased approaches. Our aim is to identify novel vulnerabilities of metastatic cells based on post-transcriptional regulation”.
Dr. Juan Valcarcel
Juan Valcárcel obtained his PhD from work on influenza virus splicing regulation carried out in the lab of Juan Ortín at the Center of Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa in Madrid. After a postdoc with Michael Green at the University of Massachusetts, working on mechanisms of splice site recognition and regulation, he established his group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1996. In 2002 the group moved to the newly created Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) of Barcelona, where he is currently ICREA Research Professor, Fundación Botín Investigator and associated Professor of the University Pompeu Fabra. Elected EMBO member in 2004, he was deputy Coordinator of the European Alternative Splicing Network of Excellence, and head of the RNAREG Consolider consortium (which coordinated work of RNA biologists and molecular oncologists in Spain). He is member of the Editorial Board of the Journals RNA, Molecular and Cellular Biology and Molecular Cell and of the Board of Reviewing Editors of eLife, as well as of the Wellcome Trust Interviewing Panel. He will serve as President of the RNA Society in 2017-2018. Work in his group focuses on molecular mechanisms and networks of alternative splicing regulation in cancer and pluripotent cells.
Lecture Topic: Networks of Alternative Splicing in Cancer
Alternative splicing of mRNA precursors expands the coding capacity of complex genomes. Alterations of alternative splicing are common in cancer, contributing to every cancer hallmark. These alterations are caused by mutations in pre-mRNA sequences or by (frequent) mutations in splicing factors. The seminar will describe the efforts of the group to uncover the molecular logic behind these alterations and how understanding mechanisms of alternative splicing regulation can provide insights into possible therapeutic approaches.
