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Dr Anne Straube

Job Title
Professor
Department
WMS - Biomedical Sciences
Phone
+44 (0)2476 151169
Web Link
Research Interests

Microtubules are essential for chromosome segregation, intracellular transport, positioning of organelles, directed cell migration and differentiation. All these processes require the organisation of microtubules into arrays with different geometry and density and the proper regulation of dynamics and interactions at the microtubule ends. My lab focuses on the mechanisms that generate specific microtubule arrays in polarised cells, the dynamic interactions of microtubule tips with intracellular structures and the cell cortex to control cell shape changes and the transport along microtubule arrays mediated by dynein and kinesins. To do this we combine quantitative live cell imaging approaches with in vitro reconstitution assays

Biography

After a Diploma in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, I joined the lab of Gero Steinberg at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and later at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. For my PhD project I studied the microtubule cytoskeleton in the fungus Ustilago maydis, concentrating in particular on the dynamic re-organisation of microtubules during the cell cycle and on intracellular transport by the molecular motors dynein and kinesin, which carry traffic along microtubules. I then moved as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Emmy Noether programme of the German Science Foundation (DFG) to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology in Edinburgh, where I worked with Andreas Merdes on the microtubule cytoskeleton in differentiating muscle cells. In 2007, after three years in Edinburgh, I started my own lab at the Marie Curie Research Institute (MCRI) in Oxted, Surrey. When the MCRI closed in 2010, I moved with my colleagues Rob Cross and Andrew McAinsh to the University of Warwick to found the Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology. I won a Lister Institute Research Prize in 2013, a Wellcome Investigator Award in 2016 and 2022 and became a Professor in 2020.

Title Funder Award start Award end
How cargo transporters switch into microtubule organisers Wellcome Trust 01 Jan 2023 31 Dec 2027
Activation and cargo interaction of molecular motors - HFSP Fellowship F Naaz Human Frontier Science Program 01 Aug 2023 31 Jul 2026
MRC Mid-range Equipment Application - January 2023 MRC 01 Aug 2023 31 Jul 2026
Organisation of actin waves and cups by differential GTPase activity BBSRC 03 Apr 2022 02 Apr 2025
BBSRC:ALERT 22 proposal: tomic force microscope for biological rsearch (bioAFM) BBSRC 01 Aug 2023 31 Jul 2024
A broadly accessible facility microscope to probe nanoscale cellular dynamics by combined live cell super-resolution microscopy and photomanipulation (BBSRC ALERT 2021) BBSRC 01 Aug 2022 31 Jul 2023
MRC equipment full proposal MRC 01 Oct 2022 31 Mar 2023
Self-organisation of microtubule arrays Supplement for 49517 for COVID 19 Wellcome Trust 02 Jul 2021 31 Dec 2022
How microtuble plus tip trackers couple polymer assembly to cargo transport - Full Leverhulme Trust 13 Feb 2017 30 Jun 2021
Self-organisation of microtubule arrays Wellcome Trust 01 Jul 2016 30 Jun 2021
Lister Institute Summer Student 2020 Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 06 Jul 2020 11 Sep 2020
Lister Summer Studentship Award Elly Straube Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 20 Aug 2018 19 Oct 2018
Molecular mechanisms of directed cell migration and invasion Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 01 Oct 2013 30 Sep 2018
Non-clinical PhD studentship: Regulation of podosome formation in vascular smooth muscle cells British Heart Foundation 01 Jan 2014 31 Dec 2016
Control of microtubule dynamics by a transport kinesin Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 01 Aug 2016 31 Oct 2016
Molecular mechanisms of directed cell migration and invasion Lister further funding Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 02 Jun 2014 29 Aug 2014
Lateral Molecular Force Microscopy of Microtubule Dynamics EPSRC 01 May 2014 31 Jul 2014
Supplement to Transitional Programme Grant (equipment donated in kind) Marie Curie Cancer Care 02 Sep 2010 30 Sep 2012
Marie Curie Cancer Care Transitional Programme Grant Marie Curie Cancer Care 01 Oct 2009 30 Sep 2012