UQDI Seminar - Oliver Dreesen PhD

Institute: The Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Date: Friday 2nd November 2018 12:00 – 1:00pm
Location: TRI room 2003

The role of heterochromatin in the accelerated ageing syndrome Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria (HGPS)

Abstract:

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria (HGPS) is a rare premature ageing syndrome, caused by a mutated form of lamin A, called progerin. Our goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanism(s) that trigger premature ageing in progeria and to understand whether these findings are relevant to normal ageing.

Short Bio:

After completing his undergraduate degree in Bern, Switzerland, Oliver worked as a research technician at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the University of California, San Diego and Lonza AG in Visp, Switzerland. As a graduate student, Oliver moved to the laboratory of Professor George A. M. Cross at the Rockefeller University in New York, where he studied the structure and function of telomeres and telomerase in Trypanosoma brucei, a protozoan parasite and the causative agent of African sleeping sickness. His Ph.D. research revealed that growth and breakage of telomeric repeats play an important role in regulating host immune evasion (antigenic variation) in trypanosomes. In 2009, Oliver joined the laboratory of Professor Alan Colman at the Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore to study telomeres during cellular reprogramming and in rare genetic human diseases. Oliver was promoted to Project Leader in 2013 and to Principal Investigator in April 2016. Oliver’s laboratory of Cell Ageing is further investigating the role of telomere dysfunction and senescence in human skin ageing and disease.