Dr Betty Chung
Corpus Christi College
- Associate Professor of Integrated Infection Biology
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About
My research is centred around the translational control of protein synthesis – an essential biological process in all living organisms. Translational regulation is widespread and especially important in the cellular response to stress factors, growth cues and differentiation signals. After undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, I pursued a PhD in Biochemistry at University College Cork, Ireland where I focused on elucidating non-canonical gene expression mechanisms in RNA viruses. During this time, I discovered and characterised novel mechanisms viruses use to generate previously unknown, but essential factors for infection.With support from Long-Term EMBO and Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships, I joined the Baulcombe Lab in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. There, I elucidated the ancestral mechanism of miRNA-mediated translational regulation using the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism. Subsequently, through a Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship, I established my research group within the Department of Pathology. Our primary focus is on investigating the molecular mechanisms of gene expression and translational control at the host-pathogen interface across various domains of life, particularly in the animal and plant kingdoms, and across multiple pathogen systems including viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotic parasites.Our recent discoveries include the rapid translational induction of sentinel cells in response to osmotic changes as a mechanism to overcome infection, and the identification of novel translation mechanisms in pathogenic bacteria. My long-term scientific vision is to understand how living organisms utilise novel gene expression mechanisms to respond and adapt to the challenging and complex biosystems we live in, and how we can use these molecular discoveries to engineer biological systems for biotechnological applications to combat pathogen infection in the face of climate change.
Research
A major response of cells during pathogen infection is changes in gene expression, leading to changes in the proteins being produced in the cell. Proteins are essential biopolymers in all living organisms, playing roles as structural components of cells, enzymes, and immune response agents such as antibodies. Regulation of gene expression can occur at two levels: transcription (where mRNA is synthesised in the cell nucleus by the macromolecular machine RNA polymerase) and translation (where mRNA is decoded into proteins in the cell cytoplasm by the macromolecular machine known as the ribosome). When cells are stressed, specific gene expression pathways are activated (e.g. cytokines as part of the innate immune system). However, so far, very few studies have systematically studied these changes in gene expression at the level of translation. The primary reason is due to technical difficulties with global monitoring of protein synthesis. Transcriptional regulation has been previously studied; however there is evidence that a significant amount of regulation also occurs at the translational level. This makes sense as direct modulation of protein synthesis provides a faster and more efficient response to pathogen infection, as it circumvents de novo mRNA transcription, processing and transport to the cell cytoplasm. Translational control is a highly dynamic process and global studies have only recently become possible with the advent of several high-throughput technologies, such as ribosome profiling - a high-throughput technique that allows capturing the location and abundance of all ribosomes on mRNAs, allowing precise global measurement of real-time protein synthesis. We aim towards understanding the complex interplay of host and pathogen gene regulation, and its ultimate effect on the host proteome and host response to biotic stress.
Group members:
Ms Ruby Hui (Lab manager)
Dr Filip Lastovka
Dr George Wood
Ms Liza Aleksseva
Ms Sasha Poh
Ms Charlotte Lim
Visiting scientists
Dr Ruby Baxter (Department of Pharmacology, Harper Lab)
Ms Ting Deng (Department of Pathology, Laman Lab)
Dr Mariya Lobanovska (UC Berkeley, Portnoy Lab)
Dr Alex Murphy (Department of Plant Sciences, Carr Lab)
Dr Jessica Bergman (Department of Plant Sciences, Carr Lab)
Dr Eugenio Solchaga Flores (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)
Dr Nida Ali (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)
Ms Reejuana Parveen (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)
Ms Emily Man (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)
Mr Wencheng Song (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)
Dr Pedro Guiomar (Department of Biochemistry, Luisi Lab)