Brian Luke awarded a Heisenberg Professorship
Brian Luke, a Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz, has been awarded a prestigious Heisenberg Professorship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). Brian Luke is now jointly appointed as Professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Adjunct Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), where he will continue to investigate the structure and function of telomeres.
Telomeres are protective caps found at the ends of linear chromosomes. Free DNA ends are normally recognised by the cell as being broken and trigger a DNA damage response, which stops the cell from dividing and propagating the damage to other cells. At the natural ends of chromosomes, however, telomeres protect the DNA ends from such a response. Problems with telomere function can result in tissue loss due to increased rates of cellular senescence, as well as chromosomal abnormalities associated with ageing. Moreover, cancer cells acquire means to lengthen their telomeres, which allows them to achieve immortality.
The Heisenberg Professorship will support Dr Luke's research into multiple aspects of telomere structure and function. His lab will explore the role of a recently-discovered non-coding telomere repeat containing RNA (TERRA), which is transcribed from telomeres and is important for telomere function. Additionally, the Luke group will investigate telomere looping, which is understood to play a role in protecting chromosome ends from degradation. This research will provide valuable insights into how the structure of telomeres is linked to their function both during ageing and in cancer cells.
Brian Luke completed his PhD in Biochemistry at ETH Zurich in 2005 and went on to a postdoc at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he played a crucial role in the discovery of the non-coding RNA TERRA, which remains one of his main research foci. He established his first independent research group at the Centre for Molecular Biology at the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH), during which time he was elected as an EMBO Young Investigator and received a Chica and Heinz Schaller Award. Luke moved with his group to IMB in 2015.
Provided by Universitaet Mainz