| Staff Details | ||||
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| Personal Information | ||
| Name | Bond, Ursula Mary | |
| Main Department | Microbiology | |
| College Title | Senior Lecturer & Head of Department | |
| ubond@tcd.ie | ||
| College Tel | +353 1 896 1817/2578 | |
| Web | http://people.tcd.ie/ubond | |
| Fax | +353 1 679 9294 | |
| Representations |
| Details | Date |
| Member of Talent bank of Women in Technology and Science |
| Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies |
| Details | Date From | Date To |
| Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science | ||
| Member of Women in Technology and Science | ||
| Member of the Association of Women in Science | ||
| Member of the American Association of Microbiologists | ||
| Member of the RNA Society |
| Awards and Honours | |
| Award | Date |
| Gerti T Cori award in Biochemistry | 1984 |
| Anna Fuller Cancer Fellowship | 1987 |
| Description of Research Interests |
| Ursula Bond, Eukaryotic Gene Expression Laboratory, Department of Microbiology. 1. Characterisation of Lager Yeasts The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an ideal model system to advance our understanding of the rules and principles of the dynamic operation of cellular systems. We are currently conducting a systematic analysis of the genetic make-up of the industrially important lager strains of yeasts. Our analysis indicates that the genomes of these strains are aneuploid in nature and have undergone major rearrangements in the structures of the chromosomes. In order to gain insight into the high fermentative capacity of lager yeast and their ability to survive under harsh environmental conditions, we are also examining the gene expression patterns of the lager yeasts under fermentation conditions and comparing these to the gene expression patterns of standard laboratory strains of yeast. These gene expression databases are available at our lab web site, http://www.tcd.ie/Microbiology/page228.html. Expanding on this knowledge, we are currently developing lager yeast strains that can increase resistance to beer-spoiling bacteria by expressing antibacterial peptides and are also exploiting the high fermentative capacity of lager yeast to generate novel strains that can degrade cellulose-based biomass to create biofuel. 2. RNA Production during the Cell Cycle in Yeasts We have been analysing the mechanisms controlling the synthesis of histone messenger RNAs during the yeast cell cycle. The ends of histone mRNAs in higher eukaryotes such as humans was very unusual in structure and unlike the majority of mRNAs, lack a characteristic ‘PolyA’ tail. This unusual structure is extremely important to the cell cycle regulation of histone mRNAs. Surprisingly it had been shown that yeast histone mRNAs do have a PolyA tail and yet the mRNAs are cell cycle regulated. Therefore, an interesting evolutionary question arises as to why such diverse mechanisms have emerged in yeasts and higher eukaryotic cells such as human cells to control a very important regulatory mechanism. Our current research focusses on the role of the 3' to 5' exonuclease enzyme Rrp6 in the degradation of histone mRNAs during the cell cycle. 3. Stress and Cancer One of the roles of Heat Shock Proteins is to chaperone tumour antigens found in cancer cells to the cell surface. These antigens then interact with the immune systems to elicit an immune response against the cancer cell. Unfortunately this response is not sufficient to eliminate the tumour cells. Heat Shock Proteins with associated tumour antigens (HSP-TAs) have been shown to have tumour rejection properties, therefore these complexes are good candidates for the generation of a cancer vaccine. Currently, we are developing a series of molecular mimics of HSP-TAs and other TAs using phage display technology. Over the past five years, we have developed a method to generate mimics of tumour antigens and have tested the immune stimulatory abilities of these mimics. Our results show that the mimics can indeed stimulate immune responses and therefore are good candidates for the development of a cancer vaccine (Arnaiz, et al, 2004, Arnaiz et al, 2006). |
| Research Interests | |||
| Cancer Biology | Cell cycle regulation in yeasts | Gene Expression in yeasts | Genetic Engineering |
| Genetics | Genome structures in brewery yeasts | Molecular Biology | Molecular Genetics |
| Molecular markers and recognition | Nuclei acids, polynucleotides, protein synthesis | Tumour markers | mRNA metabolism |
| Research Projects | |
| Project title | Antimicrobial peptide preventing beer spoilage wit neutraceutic potential |
| Summary | |
| Funding Agency | Department of Agriculture and Food |
| Programme | Food Institutional Research Measure |
| Type of Project | Research |
| Date from | 01/10/06 |
| Date to | 30/09/09 |
| Person Months | |
| Project title | Synthetic Immuno-modulatory Ppetides for Cancer Therapy |
| Summary | |
| Funding Agency | Enterprise Ireland |
| Programme | Commercialisation Fund/Technology Development |
| Type of Project | Research and Development |
| Date from | 01/10/06 |
| Date to | 30/09/09 |
| Person Months | |
| Project title | Biomass to Biofuel: Generation of Cellulose-based Biomass-degrading strains of brewery yeasts |
| Summary | |
| Funding Agency | Environment Protection Agency |
| Programme | Environmental RTDI: Productive Sector Operational Programme of the National Development Plan |
| Type of Project | Research and Development |
| Date from | 01/10/06 |
| Date to | 30/09/09 |
| Person Months | |
| Project title | Characterisation of the Role of messenger RNA 3' end formation and transcription termination in the cell cycle regulation of histone mRNAs |
| Summary | |
| Funding Agency | Science Foundation Ireland |
| Programme | Research Frontiers Programme |
| Type of Project | Research and Development |
| Date from | 01/08/06 |
| Date to | 30/09/09 |
| Person Months | |
| Publications |
| Peer Reviewed |
| Querol, A and Bond U, The complex and dynamic genomes of industrial yeasts. , FEMS Microbiol Lett. , 293, (1), 2009, p1 - 10 | |
| Arnaiz,B., Madrigal-Estabas, L., Todryk, S., James, T. C., Doherty, D. and U. Bond, A Novel Method to Identify and Characterise Peptide Mimotopes of Heat Shock Protein 70-associated antigens, Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines, 4, (2), 2006 | |
| T.C. James, D. Donnelly and U. Bond, Aneuploidy and copy number breakpoints in the genome of lager yeasts mapped by microarray hybridisation, Current Genetics, 24, 2004, p360 - 370 | |
| T.C. James, S. Campbell, D. Donnelly and U. Bond, Transcription profile of a brewery yeast under fermentation conditions, Journal of Applied Microbiology., 94, 2003, p432 - 448 | |
| T.C. James, S. Campbell, and U. Bond, Comparative Analysis of global gene expression in lager and laboratory yeast strains grown in wort, Proc. of IEEE: Challenges in Functional Genomics, 90, 2002, p1887 - 1899 | |
| More Publications>>> | |
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