Staff Profile

Current Post

Senior Lecturer

Internal Responsibilities

Senior tutor, School of Biomedical Sciences

Deputy Chair, School of Biomedical Sciences Biochemistry and Genetics Curriculum Committee.

Faculty of Medical Sciences MRes Programmes Degree Programme Director

MSc Medical Sciences Degree Programme Director

Member FMS Graduate School Committee

Member FMS Graduate School Executive

External Responsibilities

Current:

External examiner Leeds University  Medical Sciences BSc

External examiner Coventry University  Molecular Biology MSc

External examiner Coventry University  Biomedical Science BSc/MSc (delivered at MDIS, Singapore) 

STEM ambassador

Previous:

2013-2017 External examiner University of Glasgow Molecular and Cellular Biology BSc  

2010-1014 BBSRC Committee C Core Panel Member

2007-2013 Member, Biochemical Society Theme Panel 1 (Deputy Chair 2009-2013)

Qualifications

1992 PhD on pre-mRNA splicing with Prof. Jean Beggs (University of Edinburgh)

1988 BSc in Biochemistry (Imperial College London)

Previous Positions

2001-2007 MRC Senior Non-clinical Research Fellow (Newcastle)

1996 - 2001 Research Group Leader and Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow (Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh).

1992 - 1996 Postdoctoral research with Prof. Peter Walter (University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco USA), studying protein targeting to the secretory pathway. During this time I held independent Fellowships from the American Cancer Society and European Molecular Biology Organisation

Memberships

Biochemical Society, British Society for Cell Biology, Society of Biology (Fellow), Association of University Teachers

Awards

2001-2007 Medical Research Council Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship
1996-2000 Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Award
1995-1996 American Cancer Society (California Division) Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship
1992-1994 European Molecular Biology Organisation Long Term Fellowship
1988-1992 Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship and Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship

BGM1004 (Genetics) Module lead, lecturer, seminar lead

CMB1005 (Practical Skills in Biomedical and Biomolecular Sciences 1) Practical lead

BGM2061 (Protein trafficking and biological membranes) Module lead and lecturer

BGM2062 (Advanced protein analysis) Lecturer

BGM2063 (Approaches to analysis of genes and genomes) Module lead, lecturer.

BGM3055 (RNA in health and disease) Lecturer

Research Interests

Specific: Ribonucleoprotein biogenesis and function, with focus on the ribosome and signal recognition particle.

General: Targeting, translocation and sorting events within the cell. Organelle function and biogenesis. Cell biology of ribonucleoprotein particles.

Funding

2002 Wellcome Trust vacation scholarship £1,160
2001-2006 Medical Research Council Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship £894,420
2004-2006 BBSRC Project Grant £398,873
2006-2009 BBSRC Project Grant £319,023
2007-2009 BBSRC Project Grant £476,723 (fEC cost)

• Leung E, Schneider C, Yan F, Mohi-El-Din H, Kudla G, Tuck A, Wlotzka W, Doronina VA, Bartley R, Watkins NJ, Tollervey D, Brown JD. Integrity of SRP RNA is ensured by La and the nuclear RNA quality control machinery. Nucleic Acids Research 2014, 42(16), 10698-10710.
• Odon V, Luke GA, Roulston C, de Felipe P, Ruan L, Escuin-Ordinas H, Brown JD, Ryan MD, Sukhodub A. APE-Type Non-LTR Retrotransposons of Multicellular Organisms Encode Virus-Like 2A Oligopeptide Sequences, Which Mediate Translational Recoding during Protein Synthesis. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2013, 30(8), 1955-1965.
• Sharma P, Yan F, Doronina VA, Escuin-Ordinas H, Ryan MD, Brown JD. 2A peptides provide distinct solutions to driving stop-carry on translational recoding. Nucleic Acids Research 2012, 40(7), 3143-3151.
• Leung E, Brown JD. Biogenesis of the signal recognition particle. Biochemical Society Transactions 2010, 38, 1093-1098.
• de Felipe P, Luke GA, Brown JD, Ryan MD. Inhibition of 2A-mediated 'cleavage' of certain artificial polyproteins bearing N-terminal signal sequences. Biotechnology Journal 2010, 5(2), 213-223.
• Yan F, Doronina VA, Sharma P, Brown JD. Orchestrating ribosomal activity from inside: effects of the nascent chain on the peptidyltransferase centre. Biochemical Society Transactions 2010, 38, 1576-1580.
• Brown JD, Ryan MD. Ribosome "Skipping": "Stop-Carry On" or "StopGo" Translation. In: Atkins, JF; Gesteland, RF, ed. Recoding: Expansion of Decoding Rules Enriches Gene Expression. Berlin: Springer, 2010, pp.101-121.
• Blackwell C, Brown J. The application of tandem-affinity purification to Candida albicans. In: Ronald L. Cihlar and Richard A. Calderon, ed. Candida albicans: Methods and protocols. New York: Humana Press, 2009, pp.133-148.
• Schneider C, Leung E, Brown J, Tollervey D. The N-terminal PIN domain of the exosome subunit Rrp44 harbors endonuclease activity and tethers Rrp44 to the yeast core exosome. Nucleic Acids Research 2009, 37(4), 1127-1140.
• Doronina VA, de Felipe P, Wu C, Sharma P, Sachs MS, Ryan MD, Brown JD. Dissection of a co-translational nascent chain separation event. Biochemical Society Transactions 2008, 36(4), 712-716.
• van Nues RW, Leung E, McDonald J, Dantuluru I, Brown JD. Roles for Srp72p in assembly, nuclear export and function of the signal recognition particle. RNA Biology 2008, 5(2), 73-83.
• Doronina VA, Wu C, de Felipe P, Sachs MS, Ryan MD, Brown JD. Site-specific release of nascent chains from ribosomes at a sense codon. Molecular and Cellular Biology 2008, 28(13), 4227-4239.
• Ng W, Sergeyenko T, Zeng N, Brown JD, Römisch K. Characterization of the proteasome interaction with the Sec61 channel in the endoplasmic reticulum. Journal of Cell Science 2007, 120(4), 682-691.
• van Nues RW, Brown JD. Distant Segments of Saccharomyces cerevisiae scR1 RNA Promote Assembly and Function of the Signal Recognition Particle. Journal of Molecular Biology 2007, 368(3), 677-690.
• Doronina VA, Brown JD. When nonsense makes sense and vice versa: Noncanonical decoding events at stop codons in eukaryotes. Molecular Biology 2006, 40(4), 654-663.
• Zwieb C, van Nues RW, Rosenblad MA, Brown JD, Samuelsson T. A nomenclature for all signal recognition particle RNAs. RNA 2005, 11(1), 7-13.
• van Nues RW, Brown JD. Saccharomyces SRP RNA secondary structures: A conserved S-domain and extended Alu-domain. RNA 2004, 10(1), 75-89.
• de Felipe P, Hughes LE, Ryan MD, Brown JD. Co-translational, Intraribosomal Cleavage of Polypeptides by the Foot-and-mouth Disease Virus 2A Peptide. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 2003, 278(13), 11441-11448.
• Blackwell C, Russell CL, Argimon S, Brown AJP, Brown JD. Protein A-tagging for purification of native macromolecular complexes from Candida albicans. Yeast 2003, 20(15), 1235-1241.
• Mason N, Ciufo LF, Brown JD. Elongation arrest is a physiologically important function of signal recognition particle. The EMBO Journal 2000, 19, 4164-4174.
• Ciufo LF, Brown JD. Nuclear export of yeast signal recognition particle lacking Srp54p via the Xpo1p/Crm1p, NES-dependent, pathway. Current Biology 2000, 10(20), 1256-1264.