SCILLS - The Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling

SCILLS is dedicated to the study of how biological processes are controlled and how they become deregulated in disease. The Protein Ubiquitination Unit is the Institute's first research Division. Its major aims are to advance understanding of the role of protein ubiquitination and related modifications in cell regulation and human disease, to facilitate the development of drugs to treat diseases caused by abnormalities in this process, to generate reagents and improve technologies on which more rapid progress in this area depends, and to train the next generation of scientists who will advance the subject.

News

New Programme Leader Appointed

Gabriela Alexandru, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA has accepted an offer to become a Programme Leader in SCILLS and will move to Dundee to take up this position in October 2009. Gabriela’s research will focus on the role of p97, and the UBX-domain containing proteins with which it interacts, in regulating ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. Mutations in p97 are the underlying cause of Paget’s disease of the bone and frontotemporal dementia (IBMPFD), a progressive and ultimately fatal disorder.

Gabriela was born and brought up in Romania and obtained her undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the University of Bucharest. She carried out her PhD at the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna with Kim Nasmith before moving to Caltech in 2001.

Gabriela's other interests include dancing, photography, music, fashion and enjoying the countryside. She also enjoys practising yoga.

Return to News Archive