News from Signal Transduction Lab Cambridge

Two Researcher Positions Open in the Circadian Signal Transduction Lab

2019-01-09T10:13:00.000+00:00

We are delighted to open applications for two positions, one at a Post Doctoral Researcher and one at Technical grade positions. Please see details for the PDRA position below.

Information on the technical post can be found by pressing here

Research Associate (Fixed Term)

Funded by the BBSRC, we are looking to hire two researchers, a post doctoral researcher (this post) and a Technician to investigate the role of bZIP transcription factors in the regulation of the circadian clock in the model plant Arabidopsis. This is a collaboration between Professor Alex Webb (Cambridge) and Professor Michel Vincentz (Campinas, Brazil). The PDRA and technician will form a team with other members of our laboratory in central Cambridge to perform RNAseq, genetic, physiological and protein-protein interaction and phosphorylation studies to resolve how bZIP63 regulates the expression of the circadian clock gene PRR7 in response to sugars.

We are seeking applications from candidates with appropriate experience. Relevant laboratory experience is essential for both posts. The PDRA will be educated to PhD standard in a relevant discipline. Expertise in plant biology, molecular biology or circadian biology is desirable.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 3 years in the first instance. Ideally you will be able to start before 1 May 2019.

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply' button below. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Please upload a CV and covering letter describing how you meet the post specifications. Contact Alex Webb (aarw2@cam.ac.uk) if you have any queries. If you do not receive a response from us one month after the closing date you should consider that your application has not been successful this time.

Please quote reference PD17821 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Further information

Further details

Apply online

Welcome Dr Annelie Gutsch

2019-01-09T10:08:00.002+00:00

Annelie Gutsch has joined the signal Circadian Transduction Laboratory to investigate the effect of Mg on the circadian oscillator of plants. This is a collaboration with Prof Nathalie Verbruggen, ULB Belgium.

Research Technician for up to three years available in the Webb lab

2018-10-17T12:02:00.002+01:00

Research Laboratory Technician (Fixed Term)

Technician position in the laboratories of Professors Alex Webb (Department of Plant Sciences) and Ottoline Leyser (Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University)

Funded by the BBSRC, we are looking to appoint a technician to investigate the role of BIG, a protein of unknown function, in the regulation of the circadian clock and development in Arabidopsis. This is a collaboration between Professor Alex Webb and Professor Ottoline Leyser. The technician will form a team with a post-doctoral researcher and other members of our laboratories to perform RNAseq, genetic, physiological and protein-protein interaction identification studies. We are seeking applications from candidates with appropriate experience. Relevant laboratory experience is essential. Education up to BSc standard is desirable.

The appointment is for up to three years. We would like the appointee to be in place by 1 January 2019.

Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.

Please note if you have not received any news 1 month after the closing date you should consider that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Please quote reference PD17057 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

More Details

Apply

Post doctoral Position Open in Webb lab

2018-09-10T18:08:00.001+01:00

Research Associate (Fixed Term)

Post-doctoral Research Associate position in the laboratories of Professors Alex Webb (Department of Plant Sciences) and Ottoline Leyser (Sainsbury Laboratory) University of Cambridge

Funded by the BBSRC, we are looking to hire a researcher to investigate the role of BIG, a protein of unknown function, in the regulation of the circadian clock and development in Arabidopsis. This is a collaboration between Professor Alex Webb and Professor Ottoline Leyser. The PDRA will form a team with other members of our laboratories to perform RNAseq, genetic, physiological and protein-protein interaction identification studies.

We are seeking applications from candidates with appropriate experience, educated to PhD level in a relevant discipline. The position is available for up to three years in the first instance. The position must start by 1 January 2019 at the latest.

Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.

Please note if you have not received any news 1 month after the closing date you should consider that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Please quote reference PD16693 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Please apply at http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/18748/

PhD Position Open in the Webb lab. Modelling of Circadian Clocks

2017-09-07T14:39:00.000+01:00

Control of circadian period

The PhD student will be a member of the highly interdisciplinary research group, integrating experimental biological (supervised by Alex Webb in Plant Sciences) and system biology approaches (supervised by Jorge Goncalves in Engineering).

Description

Biological systems are dynamical in nature as molecular species evolve in time in response to internal or external regulations, perturbations or random fluctuations. We are interested in understanding the complex mechanisms inherent to biological systems from a dynamical perspective, typically captured with differential equations or stochastic processes from time-series data. The main objective of the PhD project is to investigate the feasibility to control the expression of different genes (phase, period and amplitude) using feedback control and how this results in the emergent properties of a circadian oscillator. The inputs are light and different metabolites (such as sucrose and nicotinamide) and the outputs are reporters of gene expression. We aim this way to fully understand how the circadian oscillator regulates phase and period of rhythms in a plant. The project connects the biological area of circadian clocks and theoretical fields of control systems and machine learning.

Your Profile:

Strong mathematical background is a requirement! Hence, the student must hold a mathematics, engineering or physics degree.
The ideal candidate would hold degrees in Control Systems, Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, or Theoretical Machine Learning.
If not already covered in their background, students must also learn advanced mathematic courses from the mathematics department including analysis, functional analysis and linear algebra, and control systems courses from the engineering department. Biological knowledge is not essential, and the student will learn basic experimental biology and perform some of the experiments.
We are seeking students that graduate in their top 20% undergraduate and Master’s class rank (equivalent to a UK first class degree).
Excellent working knowledge of English.
Funding is available to students from the UK and other EU nations. Excellent candidates from non-EU nations are welcome to apply but they will have to obtain additional funding to take up the position.

Applications should contain the following documents:

A detailed Curriculum vitae.
A motivation letter, including a brief description of past research experience and future interests.
Copies of diplomas.
Please ask at least two references to email their confidential letters directly to Alex Webb (aarw2@cam.ac.uk) within two weeks of submitting the application.

Only complete applications will be considered.

Review of applicants will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

For further information, please Alex Webb (aarw2@cam.ac.uk) or Jorge Goncalves (jmg77@cam.ac.uk).

The University of Cambridge is an equal opportunity employer. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Sucrose and ethylene modulate the plant circadian clock

2017-08-16T00:16:00.000+01:00

Our lab has been investigating the effects of sugars on the circadian clock. In our latest paper describing the work of the lead author Mike Haydon we made an unexpected finding. We found that the plant hormone ethylene regulates the period of the plant circadian clock. Ethylene is involved in the development of plants and responses to wounding, such as damage caused by insects. Andrew Millar's laboratory, now at the University of Edinburgh, demonstrated 20 years ago that plants produce ethylene with a 24 hour rhythm. But the purpose was unclear because they were unable to detect any effects of the hormone gas on the circadian clock. In Mike's new paper we report that ethylene can shorten the period of the circadian clock, but this is masked if sucrose is included in the growth media, a practice that was standard in circadian research. We find that this might be associated with the common role of the GIGANTEA protein in the response both to sucrose and ethylene.

The paper is available to read on line at
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2017/08/04/pp.17.00592

Video describing how sugars regulate the circadian clock

2017-03-02T11:35:00.001+00:00

We just found this lovely video on Youtube published a couple of years ago that describes a study by Dr Mike Haydon (now at Melbourne University) when he was in the laboratory.

This one is also pretty nice

You can read Mike's original study here Link to Haydon et al 2013 Nature.com

Mathematical PhD Opportunity in the Webb lab

2016-11-08T17:37:00.000+00:00

Timers, Switches and Sparse Bayesian Networks for Circadian Rhythm Analysis

We are seeking a computationally trained student with a background in Mathematics, Engineering or Physics to join our research group investigating new approaches to form mathematical descriptions of complex biological networks. The training programme will enable a student from a computational background to translate to biological research, train in biostatistics, control theory and dynamical modelling, and gain experience of experimentation with the potential for impact in food security. The student will be based at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Plant Science co-supervised by Professor Alex Webb and Professor Jorge Goncalves (University of Luxembourg). The student will have the opportunity to perform part of the training at the University of Luxembourg.

We have developed new tools for the analysis of circadian systems based on control theory. Our tools provide new insight when biological knowledge is limiting. We have used linear modelling to a global understanding of the circadian control of biological timing through an external coincidence with light signalling (Dalchau et al., (2010) PNAS 107, 13171-13176). and developed a linear models of the connections within the central circadian oscillator identifying previously unidentified links in the system providing insight in to ELF4 and LUX function (Herrero et al., 2012 Plant Cell 24, 428-443). More recently, we have developed a new tool from control theory called the Nu gap to identify systems changes in response to chemical and genetic perturbation of the circadian system (Carignano et al. (2015) Decision and Control, IEEE Conference Decision and Control. 3193 - 3198; Carignano et al., submitted to Molecular Systems Biology).

We will train a mathematically-trained student in Systems Biology. To ensure true multi-disciplinary training we will encourage the student to perform a rotation in a wet lab environment. Additionally, all computation focused students in the Webb laboratory are expected to perform some routine experimentation. The bulk of the training will be associated with the computational aspects of the project. The student will take the Control course in the Engineering Department and real analysis from the Mathematics Department. Moreover, training in specific aspects of the project will also take place in a placement at the laboratory of Jorge Goncalves in Luxembourg. Theoretically, this project aims to develop novel methods for network inference from time-series, low sampling data. These methods are based on inverting exponential matrices, while guaranteeing uniqueness of the models. Network sparsity will be the main focus of the research to deal with noisy data.

The position is open to residents of the EU including the UK. Applications should in the first instance be made to Professor Alex Webb at aarw2@cam.ac.uk Please include a cover letter and a CV. Review of applicants will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Industrial CASE PhD Studentship open for applications

2016-10-21T10:01:00.000+01:00

BBSRC-CASE Studentship “Identification of genetic regulators of photosynthetic carbon storage in wheat”

Supervised by Professor Alex Webb, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge and Dr Matthew Hannah, Bayer CropScience, Ghent Belgium

We are seeking applicants of the highest quality for an interdisciplinary PhD project that will provide an interesting and challenging training experience. The experimental training comprises investigations of the control of the daily turnover of carbon in crop plants. The basic mechanisms by which crop plants make decisions concerning the allocation of carbon for growth versus storage are not understood. This research will provide the opportunity to investigate the basic biochemical processes that regulate growth, in the context of delivering improved crop yield. The research will be underpinned by excellent basic science, whilst translating to deliver impact, and training in wheat and barley crop genetics and physiology. The collaboration will enable the transfer of knowledge from Arabidopsis to crops. The programme will provide advanced training in molecular crop physiology, developing the skills of an outstanding student who wants to investigate a central question in biology in the context of crop physiology and cereal genomics. Bayer CropScience will ensure the research training is complemented by developing awareness and competence in industry relevant skills.

Eligibility. You must have, or expect to obtain, a first class degree in a relevant discipline. This is a fully funded studentship providing fees and living expenses for UK applicants. EU applicants who have been resident in the UK for education purposes for three years might be eligible for a full award. Other EU applicants might be eligible for a “fees-only award”.

Applications. Please submit a CV, covering letter and the names and addresses of two referees to Prof Alex Webb (alex.webb@plantsci.cam.ac.uk).

Plant Biology Faculty Position open at Durham University

2016-10-21T09:53:00.003+01:00

Durham University is advertising for Lecturer/Senior Lecturer post

http://tinyurl.com/hkqck5n

The Lab is Clean

2016-10-20T12:13:00.003+01:00

Members of the Signal Transduction and Ion Transport groups celebrate after cleaning the lab. My office is still dirty guys..........

Research Associate in Plant Molecular Biology (Fixed Term)

2016-10-19T17:51:00.000+01:00

As part of the OpenPlant Project (www.openplant.org) we are looking to hire a postdoctoral researcher to engineer circadian rhythms in the model plant Marchantia.

OpenPlant is a joint initiative between the University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre, TSL and the Earlham Institute, funded by BBSRC and EPSRC. OpenPlant is a synthetic biology programme that promotes interdisciplinary exchange, open technologies and responsible innovation for sustainable agriculture and conservation.

We are seeking to hire a trained plant molecular biologist to contribute to the foundational tools and trait engineering programmes of OpenPlant. Synthetic parts will be developed for the measurement and manipulation of circadian rhythms in the model plant Marchantia. The PDRA will use and contribute new tools to the OpenPlant parts library to permit the measurement, perturbation and visualisation of circadian rhythms using luminescent and fluorescent probes with advanced image analysis algorithms. The developed parts will be used to understand and engineer entrainment, which is the pathway by which circadian clocks synchronise with the environment.

You should have a PhD is a relevant subject. Experience of molecular genetics, including RNA analysis, making transgenic lines and handling transgenic organisms is essential. Knowledge of circadian rhythms in Arabidopsis is desirable.

Contact Professor Alex Webb for further details aarw2@cam.ac.uk

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 2 years in the first instance.

Please upload your CV and covering letter as part of your application.

Please note that if you have not received any news from us 1 month after the closing date you should consider that on this occasion your application has not been successful.

Please quote reference PD10442 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Apply here

The Signal Transduction lab learn cricket

2016-07-26T14:47:00.000+01:00

The Webb Lab are from all over the world #ScienceisGlobal.

We decided for our lab picnic this year we would treat the members of the lab to the most English of afternoons of playing cricket and drinking Pimm's. We all enjoyed ourselves and even some of the English rediscovered the joy of cricket!

Jun will be number 1 for South Korea, a natural discovers his immense talent for the game

Xiao representing Warwickshire

Tim Plays for England

Matt showing some class for the minor counties

Gareth, the Essex bowler kept things steady

Carmen shows Spanish class by being bold and attacking in front of the crease

Cooling off with Pimm's and Lemonade

Synergistic Activation of RD29A via Integration of Salinity Stress and Abscisic Acid in Arabidopsis thaliana

2016-07-20T09:26:00.001+01:00

Manuscript accepted for publication in Plant Cell and Physiology

Today we received the good news that out manuscript outlining a new model describing how signalling pathways integrate at gene promoters has been accepted for publication in Plant and Cell Physiology. This work was a collaboration between the Webb laboratory at Cambridge and the laboratory of Dr Reiko Tanaka at Imperial College London. The research formed the basis of the PhD thesis of Dr Sang Lee.

We measured Response-to-Dehydration 29A (RD29A) expression induced by single or combined NaCl and ABA treatments in Arabidopsis thaliana. We developed mathematical model of the DREB2 and AREB pathways where NaCl and ABA act as the inputs. The model predicts that synergistic activation of RD29A originates from enhancement of DREB2 activity by ABA.

The long term of goal of this work is to investigate how combinations of signals result in non-additive effects on the plant.

Congratulations Neil Dalchau

2016-06-06T14:24:00.001+01:00

Neil Dalchau, who performed his PhD studies in the Signal Transduction Laboratory a few years ago is now a proud father. Congratulations from us all to Katie and Neil on the birth of their daughter Georgia.

Circadian Signal Transduction Lab alumni creating new teaching tool

2016-05-10T13:15:00.002+01:00

New teaching tool about circadian rhythms suitable for undergraduate level teaching

Dr Katharine Hubbard (University of Hull) and Dr Antony Dodd (University of Bristol), both ex members of the laboratory who have gone on to faculty positions have created a teaching tool as part of the American Society of Plant Biologists education resource programme to support undergraduate learning of circadian rhythms. More information here. A direct link to the resource is here

Nitric oxide regulates ADP cyclase activity

2016-05-03T17:50:00.001+01:00

Always great to see a paper published

Today published in Plant Physiology is a paper by Dr Abdul-Awal (Awal) and co-workers which describes some of the work from his PhD in the Signal Transduction lab concerning the regulation of the signalling protein ADPR cyclase. In this manuscript Awal demonstrates that nitric oxide activates ADPRcyclase to make the second messenger cyclic ADPR and to generate increases in cytosolic-free calcium. The paper is open access and can be read by all here.

Alexander Frank passes his Phd viva

2016-05-03T17:39:00.000+01:00

A very happy Alexander Frank has passed his PhD viva and the examiners have recommended that he is awarded a PhD following making some minor corrections to his thesis. Well done Alex on an excellent performance. Alexander Frank was investigating the molecular mechanisms by which sugars regulate the Arabidopsis circadian clock. Alexander is moving in to the world of patent law. We wish him luck. The laboratory is grateful to the Peter und Traudl Engelhorn Stiftung who funded his PhD.

Fully Funded PhD Interdisciplinary Studentship

2016-04-21T13:42:00.001+01:00

Open Plant PhD Studentship Open in the Webb lab, suitable for Engineers, Computer Science or Biology Graduates. Be at the interdisciplinary heart of the future!

Imaging is a cornerstone of biological research. Whilst there have been impressive advances in bioimaging, much of this has been in the context of commercial approaches for biomedicine that can restrict extensive customisation for plant biology-specific applications. To support the Open Plant and wider plant sciences communities, we will train a student in the development of open hardware and software approaches that permit low cost and customisable solutions for imaging whole plant growth, physiology and gene expression. The student will be trained to develop hardware and software for the capture and analysis of full visible spectrum, infra red, thermal, fluorescent and luminescent images of whole plants. The research will be performed in the context of the analysis of circadian rhythms because of the requirement for good signal to noise ratio and because of the reproducible nature of the responses, with the wider goal of developing approaches that are applicable to other systems. To ensure wide uptake the student will be trained in documentation and dissemination approaches to encourage customisation of the hardware and software for end user-specific approaches. The goal is to train a scientist in plant-specific imaging techniques that scale from the lab to the field.

Please see http://openplant.org/phd-studentships/ for more information and application details

Closing Date 20 May 2016

Science Saturaday

2016-03-14T12:55:00.001+00:00

The circadian signal transduction team had a great day sharing their love of circadian clocks with visitors to the University of Cambridge Science Saturday on March 12, 2016.

Pictured are Drs Hyun Ju, Tim Hearn and Jun Hyoek Kim demonstrating the circadian movement of floral organs

Nitric oxide activates ADP cyclase in Arabidopsis

2016-03-02T09:08:00.001+00:00

Dr Abdul-Awal left the lab recently after successfully defending his PhD exam. Today we received the good news that his first paper from his PhD work has been accepted for publication in Plant Physiology. ASPB members and subscribers can read a pre-print of the manuscript at http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2016/03/01/pp.15.01965.full.pdf+html. A pre-print will appear shortly on the University of Cambridge Open Access Repository.

In his paper Dr Abdul-Awal describes the role of the second messenger cADPR in the nitric oxide signalling pathway. Below is the title and the abstract

NO-mediated [Ca²⁺]_cyt increases depend on ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity in Arabidopsis

S M Abdul-Awal, Carlos T Hotta, Matthew P Davey, Antony N Dodd, Alison G Smith and Alex A R Webb

One sentence summary

ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity in Arabidopsis is upregulated by nitric oxide to increase the cellular concentration of cyclic ADP ribose and free Ca²⁺.

ABSTRACT

cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) is a Ca²⁺-mobilising intracellular second messenger synthesised from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) by ADP-ribosyl cyclases (ADPR cyclases). In animals, cADPR targets the ryanodine receptor (RyR) present in the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (SR/ER) to promote Ca²⁺ release from intracellular stores to increases the concentration of cytosolic free Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]_cyt) in Arabidopsis cADPR has been proposed to play a central role in signal transduction pathways evoked by the drought and stress hormone, abscisic acid (ABA) and the circadian clock. Despite evidence for the action of cADPR in Arabidopsis, no predicted proteins with significant similarity to the known ADPR cyclases have been reported in any plant genome database, suggesting either that there is a unique route for cADPR synthesis or a that homolog of ADPR cyclase with low similarity might exist in plants. We sought to determine whether the low-levels of ADPR cyclase activity reported in Arabidopsis are indicative of a bona fide activity that can be associated with the regulation of Ca²⁺ signalling. We adapted two different fluorescence-based assays to measure ADPR cyclase activity in Arabidopsis and found this activity has the characteristics of a nucleotide cyclase that is activated by nitric oxide to increase cADPR and mobilise Ca²⁺.

Dr Katharine Hubbard shortlisted for Royal Society of Biology Higher Education Teaching Award

2016-02-10T16:26:00.000+00:00

Signal Transduction lab alumnus Dr Katharine Hubbard has been shortlisted for a Royal Society of Biology Higher Education Teaching Award. Dr Hubbard is now a lecturer at the University of Hull. Katharine completed her PhD in the lab before moving to Prof Schroeder's laboratory in California for a post doctoral position. In recent years Katharine was employed to develop teaching material at the Department of Plant Sciences, Cambridge and as a by Fellow of Churchill College.

Full details of the award shortlist can be found here http://www.rsb.org.uk/news/14-news/1453-finalists-for-national-higher-education-teaching-award-announced

Hold a Research Fellowship at Cambridge

2016-02-09T14:04:00.000+00:00

Giulia Arsuffi joins the group as a BBSRC DTP rotation student

2016-01-21T10:29:00.001+00:00

The Circadian Signal Transduction lab welcome Ms Giulia Arsuffi who has joined as DTP rotation student. Giulia will be investigating the molecular basis of the sin1 mutation identified previously by Tim Hearn during a mutant screen to identify plants that are insensitive to the metabolite nicotinamide. This is part of the lab's goal of understanding the mechanisms by which plants regulate circadian period

Giulia is happy to join the lab!

Jin Junyang is a winner!

2016-01-14T12:07:00.000+00:00

Congratulations to Jin Junyang for winning a prize for his First Year Graduate Student seminar. Jin is member of the Signal Transduction lab who is developing mathematical tools to analyse complex biological networks.

Congratulations also to Else Matthus from Julia Davies' Ion Transport group, with whom we share lab space. Else also one a prize for her first year seminar.