Hosted by Cardiff University's School of Medicine
The presentation will discuss the intriguing connection between transcription and genome stability, highlighting the impact of transcription on other DNA-related processes and the length to which cells go to ensure that gene expression does not compromise genome stability.
Jesper Svejstrup is a Biochemist and Cell Biologist. He is interested in transcription by RNA polymerase II, and specifically in regulation of gene traffic and its coordination with other processes that occur on DNA, such as DNA replication and repair.
Following his PhD at Aarhus University in Denmark, he joined Roger Kornberg at Stanford University in California as a postdoctoral fellow and started his work on transcription and the basal protein machinery required for RNA polymerase II activity and regulation. Here, he discovered a surprisingly direct connection between the protein machineries that transcribe and repair DNA, which has affected his lab’s research ever since. In 2015, he joined the Francis Crick Institute, the UK’s premier medical research institute.
Svejstrup has since 2020 been at University of Copenhagen, where he continues to use a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating biochemical, cell biological, and genetic approaches with the new ‘omics’ techniques. He is the recipient of two consecutive ERC Advanced Investigator Grants, and serves as member of the European Research Council, presently as the vice-president of Life Sciences. He is an honorary professor at UCL, Imperial College, and Aarhus University. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Jesper was elected to EMBO in 2003. In 2009, he was elected to the Royal Society, and in 2016 to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. In 2018, he was elected Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences.
Register on Eventbrite, join the webinar online: https://cardiff.zoom.us/j/84939076107?pwd=c3Fsa096K2FMYk0wQ0ZDT2ZqSXZRUT09