Notice Board

The Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI) presents the ARRTI Speaker Series, a monthly lecture series open to the public and established to bring leading researchers to the University of Lethbridge for lectures on a broad range of topics relating to RNA research.

 May 5th, 2015
The Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute Presents:Dr. Steve Smith (Queen's University)andDr. Alisdair Boraston (University of Victoria)

Hosted by Dr. Wade Abbott (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre)

Please join us to hear about Dr. Smith's and Dr. Boraston's research:

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

1:30pm - 4:00pm

C640 (University Hall)

All are welcome!

Please see below for details on Dr. Smith's and Dr. Boraston's research.

Dr. Steven Smith (Queen's University) -

Molecular Basis of gene deregulation by the oncogenic transcription factor E2A-PBX1

Abstract:

The E2A gene is also involved in a chromosomal translocation that results in the oncogenic transcription factor E2A-PBX1. The two activation domains of E2 (AD1 and AD2) display redundant, independent, and cooperative functions in a cell-dependent manner, at least in part through an interaction with the transcriptional co-activator CBP/p300. The AD1:CBP/p300 interaction is critical for oncogenesis. However, a molecular understanding of the E2A:CBP/p300 interaction and associated function has been lacking. Here, we describe our use of structural biology, biophysical and biochemical approaches, and complementary cell-based assays and mouse studies to characterize the interactions of AD1 of E2A with CBP/p300, and our ability to disrupt this interaction by an engineered peptide. Our studies indicate that these interactions are essential for transcriptional activation and oncogenesis and provide a structural basis for these functions.

About Dr. Smith:

Dr. Steven Smith is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, and is cross-appointed in the Department of Chemistry. Steven received BSc (Honours) degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1993 and his PhD degree in Biochemistry in 1998. He was a Burroughs Wellcome Hitchings-Elion and CIHR postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford (1998-2000) before joining Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor in 2001. Dr. Smith’s research program employs various structural biology approaches (i.e., NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering), biophysical, and biochemical methodologies to uncover the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating macromolecular complex assembly and function associated with bacterial pathogenesis, cancer, and biomass degradation. He has >50 career publications and book chapters to date, and his program is currently supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada. His research successes have been acknowledged with a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award, the Faculty of Health Sciences Basmajian Research Award, and Queen's Chancellor's Research Award. Dr. Smith currently served as Chair of the undergraduate Biochemistry program, and has previously served as Associate Head of the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences (2011-13).

Dr. Alisdair Boraston (University of Victoria) -

From oceans to the gut: insights into seaweed biomass turnover from studies of the human gut microbiome

Abstract:

Most of the photosynthetically fixed carbon present on Earth is in land plants. Photosynthetically fixed carbon in the oceans, however, is far more dynamically recycled than it is on land. Ocean plant biomass [i.e. microalgae and macroalgae (seaweed)] is estimated to be only ~1/200 that of terrestrial plant biomass yet the annual turnover rate of photosynthetically fixed carbon in the oceans is roughly equal to that on land indicating a normalized rate of recycling that is ~2-orders of magnitude greater than on land. The biochemical basis for the rapid turnover of carbon in seaweed biomass, which is primarily carbohydrate (polysaccharide) is not well understood. Such information is key to the development of complete biogeochemical models of the global carbon cycle and to unlocking abundant and farmable seaweed biomass sources as a feedstock for the generation of biofuels, the creation of high-value products, or use in other biotechnological applications.

One of the challenges in the biochemical mapping of microbial seaweed polysaccharide degrading pathways is that organisms that work in situ are typically psychrophilic, causing unique difficulties with the biochemical characterization of the enzymes making up the relevant pathways. We have turned to an unusual alternative set of microorganisms: those from the human gut microbiome. Polysaccharide degrading pathways are highly expanded in human gut bacteria and represented among these are pathways devoted to seaweed polysaccharide metabolism. The enzymes comprising the pathways from these mesophilic organisms provide a tractable alternative to the psychrophilic enzymes, allowing us to make significant inroads into the complete molecular delineation of these novel metabolic pathways. Furthermore, analysis of these pathways in gut microbes is providing unique insight into carbohydrate-driven adaptation of the gut microbiome and its individual members.  

About Dr. Boraston:

Alisdair B. Boraston received his BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1993. He obtained his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology under the supervision of Professors Doug Kilburn and Tony Warrren at UBC in 2000 then, after a brief post-doctoral research appointment in the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory, he spent 1.5 years in England training as an NSERC-funded Post-Doctoral Fellow in the York Structural Biology Laboratory, University of York, UK, under the supervision of Professor Gideon Davies. In 2003, he began a position in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at The University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor and was ultimately promoted to Professor in 2014. Group research interest is in structural glycobiology and its application to the analysis of protein-carbohydrate interactions in enzymes that modify carbohydrates or proteins that non-catalytically bind them. One major area of investigation is molecular pathogenesis whereby the roles of bacterial proteins in recognizing and/or modifying host glycans during infection are examined. A second key topic of study is the enzymatic breakdown of marine and terrestrial plant cell walls by microbes and how the unique building blocks of these polymerized sugars are funneled through novel metabolic pathways. Recognitions include an EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2012), a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scholar Award (2008-2013), and he held the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Molecular Interactions (2003-2013).

The Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI) and the ARRTI Speaker Series are supported by Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.