| Staff Details | ||||
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| Personal Information | ||
| Name | Bond, Ursula Mary | |
| Main Department | Microbiology | |
| College Title | Assoc Prof/ Head of Department | |
| ubond@tcd.ie | ||
| College Tel | +353 1 896 1817/2578 | |
| Web | http://people.tcd.ie/ubond | |
| Fax | +353 1 679 9294 | |
| 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 and Biotechnology 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 cellular systems. We are currently conducting a systematic analysis of the genome and transcriptome of the industrially important strains of yeasts. We discovered that the genomes of lager yeasts are extremely dynamic and undergo rearrangements in response to environmental stress. Expanding on our knowledge of industrial genomes, we are interested in generating industrial yeasts with improved characteristics such as increased ethanol tolerance and improved fermentation capacity, using an adaptive evolution approach. We have also developed yeast strains expressing natural antimicrobial peptides which can prevent the growth of beer-spoiling bacterial in industrial fermentations. 2. Biomass to Biofuel. As the world enters a post fossil fuel era, there is an urgent need to identify alternative environmentally sustainable energy sources. One potential energy source is biomass such as grasses, woody plants, or industrial waste. Energy in biomass is stored as lignocellulose which is broken down by enzymes called cellulases. A current goal in the biofuel industry is to generate microorganisms that can breakdown the cellulose in biomass into a sugars which can be fermented into ethanol, a process called consolidated bioprocessing. Industrial yeasts such as those used in the brewing and distilling industries are robust producers of ethanol, however they do not possess the enzymes to degrade cellulose. Our laboratory have developed a series of yeast strains expressing the genes encoding for the cellulase enzymes from the fungus Trichoderma reesei. The yeast strains secrete the recombinant enzymes into the medium and are capable of degrading cellulose. We are currently optimising for the production of the cellulase enzymes and generating new strains capable of degrading both cellulose and hemicellulose. 3. 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 and lack a characteristic ‘PolyA’ tail. This unusual structure is extremely important to the cell cycle regulation of histone mRNAs. Surprisingly yeast histone mRNAs do have a PolyA tail and yet the mRNAs are also cell cycle regulated. Therefore, an interesting evolutionary question arises as to why such diverse mechanisms have emerged in yeasts and human cells to control a very important regulatory mechanism. Our current research focusses on the role of proteins such as Sen1p and Rrp6 in the degradation of histone mRNAs during the cell cycle. 4. Stress and Cancer A key requirement for the development of cancer immunotherapy is the identification of tumour-associated antigens that are differentially or exclusively expressed on the tumour and recognized by the host immune system. Unfortunately, immune responses to such antigens are often muted or lacking due to the antigens being recognized as “self”, by the tumour environment and regulation of immune cells within. To circumvent the lack of immune responses to tumour antigens, we have devised a strategy to develop potential synthetic immunogens using a strategy, termed mirror image phage display. Using this approach we have developed a series of molecular mimics of known and unknown tumour antigenss and show that the mimic molecules display characteristics such as immunstimulation of T-cells in vitro. These molecular mimics cross-stimulate T-cells previously stimulated with the native antigen. Thus mimic peptides are good candidates for the generation of a cancer vaccine. |
| 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 |
| Suzanne Beggs, Tharappel C. James and Ursula Bond, The PolyA tail length of yeast histone mRNAs varies during the cell cycle and is influenced by Sen1p and Rrp6p, Nucleic Acids Research, 40, (6), 2012, p2700 - 2711 Url TARA - Full Text DOI |
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| James, T.C. and U, Bond, Molecular Mimics of the Tumour Antigen MUC1, PLOS One, 7, (11), 2012, p1-10 Alt. Url | |
| 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 | |
| More Publications>>> | |
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