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Another fantastic Zinc-UK meeting!

The Pitt and Stewart labs attended the Zinc-UK meeting, London 2015 and would like to thank Dr Imre Lengyel and Dr Elisa Bellomo for putting together such an exciting programme.

Dr Samantha Pitt would like to thank the organisers for giving her the opportunity to talk about the lab’s latest research and gave a talk entitled “Zinc unmasks a new player in cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium leak”.

Well done to Ben and Gavin who both presented their work at this meeting. Ben gave an oral presentation entitled “The role of zinc in regulating intracellular calcium release” and Gavin presented a poster entitled “A novel role for Zn²⁺ in modulation of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release in skeletal muscle”.

The Pitt lab would like to thank the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the BHF for supporting this research.

Phosphatidylinositol (PhoIns)-specific phospholipase C enzymes (PLCs) are central to the inositol lipid signalling pathways and contribute to intracellular Ca²⁺ release and protein kinase C activation in mammalian neurons. Six distinct classes of PhoIns-specific PLCs are known to exist in mammals (β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, and η), all of which are activated by distinct membrane receptor-mediated events. The Stewart lab previously revealed that expression of the PLC isozyme, PLC-η2 is essential for neurite growth, a process central to normal neuronal differentiation. A new study from the lab has gone a step further and shown that active PLC-η2 is needed for neurite growth to occur. Furthermore, the study also revealed that PLC-η2 interacts directly with LIM Domain Kinase 1, a key cytoskeletal regulatory protein previously implicated in this process. The new findings are published in the journal, Histochemistry and Cell Biology. Full text is available here: DOI 10.1007/s00418-015-1390-7.

Dr Alan Stewart has been appointed to the BBSRC Pool of Experts. The BBSRC is one of the 7 Research Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK). The BBSRC which funds world leading UK bioscience has an annual budget in excess of £500M. Pool members are appointed based upon an active involvement in high quality UK biological research, and are recruited from a range of scientific backgrounds to assist in the assessment of funding applications.

Dagmara Wiatrek was in attendance at the 29th European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society (EMDS) Meeting in Krakow, Poland. Dagmara presented a poster entitled “Alterations in zinc transporter expression during dendritic cell maturation”. Her trip was supported by a travel award from EMDS.

Another fantastic year.

A special thanks to Alex Street (The Marine Biological Association, Plymouth) and to Prof. David Ogden (Paris Descartes & The Francis Crick Institute, London) for organising another successful year.

2015 was the year of the patch clamp!!! We successfully recorded whole cell currents using both conventional whole cell patch clamp and perforated patch, and also recorded some beautiful single channels using cell attached, outside-out and inside-out patches.

For students thinking of applying or wishing to find out more about the course, please visit Microelectrode Techniques for Cell Physiology 2016

On 2^nd of September Dagmara took part in Life Sciences event for schools which took place at Perth High School. Her series of workshops on ELISA technique were attended by over 100 pupils aged 12-17.

Read our auto-commentary here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/pPYM3yrf9xVqSjaxncKP/full

Cell Biology of Metals, Gordon Research Conference, 26-31 July 2015

Dr Samantha Pitt would like to thank Profs Amy Palmer and Dennis Thiele for putting together such an exciting programme.

Samantha Pitt presented her work looking at how “Zinc Modulates Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor Function Resulting to Altered Intracellular Ca(II)-Dynamics”

A BHF-funded PhD studentship characterising zinc-dependent heparin neutralisation by fibrinogen and histidine-rich glycoprotein is available in the laboratories of Dr Alan Stewart And Dr Sam Pitt. Full details and instructions on how to apply are available here.

Dagmara Wiatrek has been awarded £400 from the European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society (EMDS) to attend their annual meeting in Krakow, Poland in September. Dagmara will present part of her PhD studies at the meeting relating to zinc transporter expression in dendritic cells .