Policing secretion: how the COPII coat directs specificity in export from the ER.
Dr. Liz Miller holds joint roles as a Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. Liz grew up in Melbourne, Australia, completing her undergraduate Honours degree in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne. She then moved to La Trobe University’s School of Biochemistry for her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Marilyn Anderson. Liz’s PhD work on the intracellular trafficking of a plant defense protein sparked a long-term interest on mechanisms of protein folding and transport within the secretory pathway. She pursued this topic as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow with Dr. Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work in the Schekman lab focused on selective export of newly synthesized secretory proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via COPII vesicles, and the molecular mechanism by which cargo proteins are captured into nascent vesicles. In 2005 she started her own lab in the Biology Department at Columbia University in New York City, studying the interface between protein folding within the ER and capture COPII vesicles. This quality control checkpoint represents a key decision point that ensures that cells only release folded, mature proteins, which are less likely to aggregate and cause toxicity in downstream compartments. In 2015 Liz moved to the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, where her lab continued to probe the mechanistic basis of protein quality control within the ER. In 2023, Liz took up a position at the University of Dundee, where her work on the mechanisms of protein secretion will focus on the mechanisms of secretory protein capture into COPII vesicles with the goal of developing small molecule inhibitors of these interactions for therapeutic benefit.
Date: 22 November 2024, 14:00
Venue: Medical Sciences Teaching Centre, off South Parks Road OX1 3PL
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Prof Liz Miller (MRC, Cambridge)
Organising department: Sir William Dunn School of Pathology
Organiser: Melissa Wright (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology)
Organiser contact email address: melissa.wright@path.ox.ac.uk
Host: Prof Pedro Carvalho (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology)
Part of: Dunn School of Pathology Departmental Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Melissa Wright