Lab News

Meenakshi Singh receives her doctoral degree
(25-05-2023) Meenakshi brilliantly defended her PhD thesis entitled “Pathogenic mechanisms affecting mitochondrial DNA replication and transcription”. Congratulations! Very interesting discussion led by opponent Sjoerd Wanrooij from Umeå University.

Our latest paper shows a second light strand promoter in human mtDNA
(31-08-2022) Congratulations to postdoc Ben Tan and coauthors! Molecular Cell.

Carlos Pardo Hernández receives his doctoral degree
(20-05-2022) Well done Carlos for an excellent defence of his thesis “Molecular and structural studies of proteins required for mitochondrial DNA maintentance”. All the best! Thank you also to Miguel García Díaz from Stony Brook University for an engaged discussion.

Embedded ribonucleotides impair mitochondrial transcription – latest paper
(25-01-2022) Ribonucleotides embedded in template DNA impair mitochondrial RNA polymerase progression. Congratulations to our PhD student and lead author Meenakshi Singh! Nucleic Acids Research.

Welcome Rebekah Hailes
(19-04-2021) We are very happy to have our new scientific coordinator/postdoc Rebekah Hailes join the group.

Our first 2021 paper is out – POLRMT mutations impair mitochondrial transcription causing neurological disease
(19-02-2021) We report the first associations between mutations in POLRMT, reduced transcription activity and mitochondrial disease. Congratulations to our lab members Bradley Peter, Zsolt Szilagyi, Hector Diaz-Maldonado, Meenakshi Singh and Emily Hoberg, plus all our collaborators at the WCMR and around the world. Nature Communications.

Our latest paper out in Nature – Small-molecule inhibitors of human mitochondrial DNA transcription
(18-12-2020)
In our newest paper we identify novel small-molecule inhibitors of POLRMT that also have anti-tumor effects. Congratulations to our former postdoc Brad Peter, and all our collaborators! Nature.

Grant from the Swedish Cancer Society
(20-11-2020) 6 million SEK awarded to Claes Gustafsson from the Swedish Cancer Society for a 3 year project on mitochondrial gene expression as a target for cancer therapy. Read more about it in a short interview with Claes in Akademiliv.

Our latest review on mtDNA replication is out
(12-10-2020) Access our new review at Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol. We present the latest developments in mammalian mtDNA replication, and also discuss the mechanisms behind how mtDNA deletions are formed.

Bradley Peter moves to AstraZeneca
(29-04-2020) We sadly say goodbye today to our postdoc and structure expert, Brad Peter, who is starting a new position at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg.

Postdoc positions
(06-04-2020) We will be hiring postdocs! If you are interested, please send your CV to Jay Uhler.

Carlos Pardo Hernández completes his half-time seminar
(31-01-2020) Our REMIX PhD student Carlos made the cut with a great talk about his PhD work in front of colleagues and his two examiners. Congratulations!

National DNA Transactions Meeting
(29-01-2020) An inspiring start to the year at the National DNA Transactions meeting in Stockholm. Many excellent talks including from our REMIX PhD fellow Carlos Pardo Hernández.

See our latest paper in Molecular Cell
(04-10-2019) Our work on REXO2 is now out in Molecular Cell. Congratulations to our former postdoc Tom Nicholls and all our collaborators! 

Welcome Laleh Arabanian
(01-10-2019) Great to have Laleh Arabanian on board who joins the group as a researcher.

New paper on novel pathogenic mtSSB mutations 
(30-09-2019) Zsolt Szilagyi from our group contributed to a multi-group collaboration led by the Carelli and Pippucci groups that identifies novel mtSSB mutations in patients with optic atrophy spectrum disorder.

Brad gives talk at the Mitochondria in Human Disease Conference
(18-09-2019) Our postdoc Brad Peters gave a great talk and poster presentation about POLRMT disease-mutants at the Mitochondria in Human Disease Conference in beautiful Saltsjöbaden in Stockholm. Also presenting super talks and posters were our former PhD student Paulina Wanrooij and former postdoc Tom Nicholls, both now PI’s continuing in mtDNA/RNA research.

A paper out from our collaboration with the Larsson group
(01-05-2019) Congratulations to our PhD student (now postdoc at the Crick) Viktor Posse for his contribution to the characterization of the first TFEM knockout mouse. Published in EMBO ReportsTEFM regulates both transcription elongation and RNA processing in mitochondria.

New year, new paper – out in PLoS Genetics
(07-01-2019)  A new year all the happier with our latest paper by Viktor Posse and coauthors – RNase H1 directs origin-specific initiation of DNA replication in human mitochondria.

News Archive