Sarah Teichmann, from the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, will deliver the Lister Research Prize Lecture, an award given in support of her integrated computational and genomic approach to decoding the transcriptional regulatory networks involved in T helper cell differentiation. T helper cells belong to a group of white blood cells, called lymphocytes, and assist other white blood cells in immunologic processes.
The prestigious Lister Research Prizes are awarded annually by The Lister Institute to three people in the UK to support quality research in the biomedical or related biological sciences.
The research in Sarah’s group spans genomics, computational and systems biology. The group’s discoveries include important general principles in classification, evolution and assembly of multi-domain proteins and protein complexes that will improve engineering and manipulation of protein complexes, and aid quaternary structure predictions. Her group has shown how transcriptional regulatory networks in prokaryotes and eukaryotes evolve by gene duplication, and how network topology is dynamically adapted in response to diverse cellular conditions. Current work, applying next generation sequencing and single molecule techniques to T helper cells, has revealed two distinct abundant classes of mRNAs in metazoan cell populations, as well as individual discoveries relevant to T helper cell biology. The balance between T helper cell subtypes is key to infection, autoimmunity and cancer.
Sarah’s work has previously been recognized by the Shell Science & Technology Woman of the Future Award (2009), the Biochemical Society’s Colworth Medal (2010) and she will give the Crick Lecture at the Royal Society in 2012.
The title of Sarah’s Lister Research Prize Lecture is ‘Decoding genetic switches in T helper cell differentiation’. She will present recent results on next generation sequencing methods applied to T helper cell differentiation.
The lecture takes place on the 28th October 2011 at 11am in the LMB’s Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, followed by a reception in the foyer of the LMB. All welcome.
Further references:
Sarah Teichmann’s Group Page
Sarah’s Lister Prize Lecture Poster
The Lister Research Prizes