Biological Sciences

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Matt has the fulfilling, but occasionally challenging, role of leading the School of Biological Sciences. Matt's undergraduate studies were in Biochemistry at King's College London and he stayed there to study for his Ph.D with Prof Henry Arnstein. His thesis was on understanding how mRNA stability is regulated and involved his first work with the Xenopus frog model organism in 1984. A post-doctoral fellowship at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund followed in the laboratory of Ian Kerr, analysing the regulatory regions of genes that respond to the antiviral signalling molecule interferon.

Matt's work on gene regulation continued when he moved to the Randall Institute to work on the transcription controlling proteins involved in blood formation and returned to the Xenopus model in Prof Roger Patient's group. The team isolated the genes encoding a number of blood and heart specific transcription factors and began the ongoing study of their roles in the developing embryo.

Appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth in 1996, Matt's research is on how the activity of transcription regulating proteins is controlled in the very early stages of embryonic development, concentrating on the proteins involved in blood formation. In collaboration with Alan Thorne and Geoff Kneale this work has been extended to include the role and structure of a chromatin regulating protein. More recently collaboration with Simon Cragg has led to the isolation of wood-digestion genes in the marine borer, Limnoria. Together with Prof Liz Jones (University of Warwick) Matt runs the European Xenopus Resource Centre, the largest gene function resource for this model organism in the World, which is based at Portsmouth and funded by the Wellcome Trust. As well as the Wellcome Trust, the BBSRC and Leverhulme Trust fund Matt's research.

Research Interests

• Transcription factor activity control in the early embryo
• dsRBD containing proteins
• Chromatin regulation in the early embryo
• The genetics of wood digestion in the marine environment
• Developing new tools for the Xenopus model

Recent Publications

More recent publications

"Identification of a structural and functional domain in xNAP1 involved in protein-protein interactions." C. Friedeberg, G. Scarlett, J. McGeehan, A. Abu-daya, M. Guille and G. Kneale, (2006) Nucleic Acids Res 34:4893-9.

"Zygotic nucleosome assembly protein-like 1 has a specific, non-cell autonomous role in hematopoiesis." Abu-Daya A, Steer WM, Trollope AF, Friedeberg CE, Patient RK, Thorne AW, Guille MJ (2005) Blood 106:514-20.

"Intact RNA-binding domains are necessary for structure-specific DNA binding and transcription control by CBTF122 during Xenopus development." Scarlett GP, Elgar SJ, Cary PD, Noble AM, Orford RL, Kneale GG, Guille MJ (2004) J Biol Chem. 279:52447-55.

"Linker length modulates DNA cross-linking reactivity and potency for ether-linked C2-exo-unsaturated pyrolo [2,1-c][1,4] benzodiazepine (PBD) dimers." S. Gregson, P. Howard, D. Gullick, A. Hamaguchi, K. Corcoran, N. Brooks, J. Hartley, T. Jenkins, S. Patel, M. Guille and D. Thurston (2004) J. Med. Chem. 47:1161-74.

"Xenopus Nucleosome Assembly Protein becomes tissue-restricted during development and can alter the expression of specific genes." W. Steer, A. Abu-Daya, S. Brickwood, K. Mumford, N. Jordanaires, J. Mitchell, C. Robinson, A. Thorne and M. Guille (2003) Mech. Dev. 120, 1045-57.

"RNA-dependent cytoplasmic anchoring of a transcription factor subunit during Xenopus development." J. Brzostowski, C. Robinson, R. Orford, S. Elgar, T. Peterkin, M. Malartre, G Kneale, M. Wormington and M. Guille. (2000) EMBO J. 19, 3683-369

"The maternal CCAAT box transcription factor which controls GATA-2 expression is novel, developmentally regulated and contains a dsRNA-binding subunit." R. Orford, C. Robinson, J. Haydon, R. Patient and M. Guille. (1998) Molecular and Cellular Biology, 18, 5557-5566.

"Over-expression of GATA-6 in Xenopus embryos blocks differentiation of heart precursors" C.Gove, M.Walmsley, S.Nijjar, D. Bertwistle, M.Guille, G.Partington, A.Bomford and R.Patient (1997) EMBO. J 16, 355-368.

Teaching Interests

• Cell Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Gene Regulation

In his spare time Matt is usually to be found afloat with his family somewhere on the English Channel.