Proteomics seminar series for the South East
---Registration is free---
-- The London Proteomics Discussion Group --
Proteomics seminar series for the South East
Proteomics seminar series for the South East
We are a free, local proteomics seminar series in the South East,
with a focus towards networking, discussion and supporting early career researchers.
The LPDG...
was founded to bring together the large community of proteomics scientists all working in and around London. We aim to provide a space for discussion, with a focus on methods and early career researchers (two fundamental building blocks of good research!), on all topics related to proteomics. The meetings comprise of research talks framed by a proteomics methods challenge, lunch, refreshments and pizza - they are free to attend thanks to sponsorship.
Meeting Dates:
These seminars would not be possible without our amazing sponsors.
If you are interested in sponsoring an LPDG seminar,
please get in touch at sponsor@londonproteomics.co.uk
07th May 2021 14:00 GMT
Pulse-chase proteomics of the App knock-in mouse models of amyloid pathology reveals synaptic dysfunction originates in presynaptic terminals
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an incurable brain disorder that currently debilitates millions of people world-wide. Historically, the etiological model has been that early alterations at synapses cause changes in the activity of neuronal circuits, which occur many years prior to the presentation of clinically impaired cognition. Consistently, synapse loss represents an important and early feature of AD that correlates with the severity of dementia. The mechanisms leading to synaptic dysfunction and loss are not fully understood and both direct and indirect effects of Abeta peptides and Tau pathology are recognized as key drivers.
Our team has recently discovered that there is impaired protein degradation selectively associated with APP KI axon terminals that results in elevated abundance of synaptic vesicle associated proteins in early stages of AD pathology. Intriguingly, we observe a relationship between these observations and the effects of the atypical antiepileptic drug levetiracetam that is currently the subject of several Phase II clinical trials for AD. Our preliminary studies demonstrated that levetiracetam selectively normalizes SV endocytosis machinery abundance and restores non-amyloidogenic processing of APP which is anti-correlated to our disease progression observations. Thus we have uncovered a potential mechanism that may explain the therapeutic benefits of levetiracetam as well as targets for future therapeutic intervention. In this seminar, I will summarize these findings and describe our ongoing and future research.
Dissecting synapse proteome complexity and synapse diversity
Prior to proteomic studies, synapses were considered to be relatively simple devices built from a handful of proteins. Proteomic studies of excitatory synapses across a range of vertebrate species have revealed a remarkable complexity with several thousand highly conserved proteins. This knowledge has had a profound impact on our understanding of human disease with mutations in hundreds of synapse genes causing over 130 brain disorders and has been used in many studies including those revealing schizophrenia is a synaptic disorder. Spatial proteomics has revealed that brain regions have different composition, which informs on the functional specialisation of brain regions and why diseases target those regions. We have developed methods to understand the differences in synapse protein composition at single-synapse resolution on a brain-wide scale in the mouse (Zhu, Cizeron, Qiu et al, Neuron 2018; Cizeron et al, Science 2020) and found unexpectedly high synapse diversity, which is described by the molecular composition and morphological characteristics of individual synapses. Data driven analysis of brain-wide data has enabled is to create a catalogue of excitatory synapse types and subtypes, which describes the synaptome. Every synapse type/subtype has a particular spatial distribution producing the synaptome architecture of the brain and this architecture changes across the lifespan, producing the Lifespan Synaptome Architecture. We have shown the synaptome architecture is important for physiological properties, structural and functional connectome properties and is reprogrmmed in genetic diseases. Single synapse proteome studies offer a new way to understand neurodegenerative and other brain disorders.
Would you like to present at an LPDG meeting? Email: speaker@londonproteomics.co.uk
Research presentations from:
The overarching goal of Dr Savas's research is to determine how protein mishandling contributes to synaptic dysfunction, neurodegeneration, and aging. Preliminary findings show that presynaptic terminals represent pioneering sites of dysfunction during the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) like pathology (Hark et al. Cell Systems (2021). To determine the specific synapses with altered proteostasis he will use recently developed synaptic biotinylation probes. If successful, this research could provide a new understanding of the proteins responsible impaired synaptic transmission in AD.
Seth Grant is Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His seminal work on the genetics of cognition, synapse proteomics and synaptopathies has earned international awards, most recently the 2020 FENS EJN Award. As a UK DRI Associate Member, Prof. Grant leads the Synapse Biology research theme at DRI Edinburgh and collaborates with DRI Imperial College on Alzheimer’s disease pathology as part of the Multi-‘omics Atlas Project. His current research provides insights into the mechanisms of memory and learning in healthy ageing and neurological disease.
Dr Blanca Díaz-Castro joined Edinburgh University in October 2019 as a UK DRI programme leader. She obtained her PhD degree at the University of Seville and after a brief stay at Northwestern University, completed her postdoctoral research at University of California. Her research is centred on the study of molecular and cellular aspects of astrocyte biology that contribute to neuronal function in health and disease. She applies her expertise to understand how blood brain barrier cells communicate and act as a bridge between the periphery and the brain.
March 2020 Meeting
Here is a list of answers to frequently asked questions for speakers, delegates and sponsors
The meetings are free to attend! We raise money through the generous support of sponsors for refreshments and venue hire. Sponsors are offered the opporunity to suggest a plenary research presentaiton or present a short (10min) sales talk.
Yes! Thanks again to the support of our sponsors, we are able to provide a sandwhich buffet lunch, refreshments, and pizza and drinks to end. We try our best to get a range of refreshments to support diverse dietry requirments, but please let us know in advance if you have any specific needs.
We are always looking for new speakers - from PhD candidates to senior scientists within proteomics. We recruit speakers through personal invitations/networking, suggestions from deligates and from people contacting us directly. If you would like to present at a meeting, we would be delighted to hear from you, please get in touch at speaker@londonproteomics.co.uk
Registration is not essential, but it is very helpful for us to arrange catering and venues to ensure we don't over/under spend. In some cases, where space is limiting, registration may be essential and we will advertise this. If in doubt - register!
We do not have any funding to support delegates. However, if you are speaking, it may be possible to get a travel grant from the British Society for Proteome Research (BSPR). In some instances, we may be able to subsidise travel costs for speakers, but this is dependant on sponsorship for that meeting.
The organising committee is made up of early career (including PhD candidates) and more experienced scientist from academia and industry. We are very keen to have a bredth of backgrounds and experience on the committee, so if you would like to be involved, please get in touch by speaking to a committee member at a meeting, or emailing us - we would like to hear from you!
Our meetings are focused on proteomics and the delegates include proteomics-users from academia and industry. Therefore, at these meetings, there is a "captured audience" of possible clients. Sponsoring our meeting will allow you to present your product or service to a concentrated group of possible users. These meetings are only possible with sponsorship, and you will be contributing to the disemiation of science, and potentially meeting tallented future employees through networking.
We have a range of options for meeting sponsorship. To sponsor a meeting, please get in touch at sponsor@londonproteomics.co.uk, we will be delighted to hear from you.
Yes! Just like our physical meetings, our webinars are completely free to attend.
Please register for our meeting in the normal way (click here). A link will be emailed to you prior to the meeting starting with instructions on how to join. Alternatively, a join link for the webinar will also be posted here immediately prior to it starting. For webinars run as a Microsoft Live Event, find instructions on how to join here, or using Zoom here.
The discussion will be mediated by the chairperson who will take questions from all attendies. The best way to contribute during the talk and to post questions is through our slack account.
The meetings are recored and will be posted to our archive page.
The webinars are put on with the generous support academic institutions (as indicated in the webinar acknowledgements). We may accept sponsorship for webinars to allow us to run competitions and maintain our ability to put on free meetings in high quality venues. Webinar sponsors get the opportunity of a short presentation at the beginning of the webinar, and we may disseminate some information through our mailing list after the event. Sponsorship does not represent endorsement by LPDG or its affiliates.
If you still have unanswered questions after reading this page, wish to present a talk, suggest a venue or sponsor a meeting, please contact us.
The organising committee is made up of early and "not-so-early" career scientists
from academia and industry.
If you are interested in joining the committee, please get in touch.
After my PhD in blood plasma cancer proteomics I moved to the Cancer Proteomics Group at UCL. I founded the LPDG as a focus group for the SE. I am currently at the Babraham Institute investigating protein degradation pathways using proteomics.
I am a post doc at ICL, developing mass spectrometry and data analysis methodology for the study of protein PTMs, in particular methylation. My research is multidisciplinary, using chemistry, bioinformatics and biology. For more info, click here.
I am a post-doc at the ICR in Paul Huang’s group. My research interest is in extracellular matrix remodelling during cancer progression. From an analytical point of view, I am interested in protein quantification by DIA mass spectrometry.
I manage an MS lab at QMUL. I graduated from Drexel University (USA) in Biomedical Science, completing my PhD work at Harvard University. After a long stint in the private sector, I re-joined academia here in the UK researching lipidomics and proteomics.
Danai studied biology and biomedical sciences in Greece. She has worked in numerous labs in England, Singapore, the Netherlands and Greece. Now she is focusing on her PhD at UCL in Primary Biliary Cholangitis analyzing human samples using Mass spectrometry.
I am a PhD student at UCL on the CellX project in the Thalassinos Lab studying competition in cellular populations using mass spectrometry-based proteomics.
Daniel is a post-doc in the lab of Prof. Ed Tate at Imperial College London. His research interests lie in the use of chemical proteomics for better understanding of drug targets, protein function, and post-translational modification dynamics.
Tom works for SCIEX in the London region helping customers with MS and 'OMICS applications. He gained an interest in MS from working with Prof Roy Goodacre, Manchester Institute of Biotech. applying -omics and chemometric approaches for rapid food authenticity determination.
Please email with any questions.
Particularly welcome are venue suggestions,
speaker suggestions or if you are thinking of sponsoring a meeting.
This seminar series is run by volunteers from academia and industry. We will try to reply to your email as quickly as possible, but please allow at least 5 days.
