At the National University of Ireland Galway

Rea Lab Members

• Jennifer Chubb, PhD

  Postdoc
  

  I attended Trinity College Dublin, from 1998 until 2002 where I obtained a BA (mod) honours degree in Genetics. Following this I undertook a four year Wellcome Trust funded PhD in the cellular and molecular basis of disease at the University of Edinburgh. After my first year I graduated with a M.Sc. degree in the Life Sciences which led on to my three year PhD project in the area of psychiatric genetics.

  My PhD research involved characterization of two schizophrenia candidate genes disrupted by a balanced chromosomal translocation in a large Scottish family. I completed my PhD in 2007 and subsequently joined the Centre for Chromosome Biology at NUI Galway to continue my research into the cellular and molecular basis of complex illnesses.

  My postdoctoral research will investigate the role of the histone acetyltransferase, hMOF, in tumorigenesis using mammalian primary and established cell lines as a model system.

• Zheng Lai, M.Sc

  PhD student
  

  I joined Stephen Rea’s lab as a PhD student in September 2009. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Sichuan University in China in 2001. Then, I obtained my Masters degree in Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (IBCB), Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2006.

  My MSc program focused on medical genetics. I finished a mutation screen and analysis of several genes linked with STGD-3 like macular dystrophy in a Chinese pedigree, and the relative results were published in J Cell Mol Med (2005, 9(4): 961-5). Subsequently I started my career in the structural biology laboratory in IBCB, engaging in protein expression and purification with prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems.

  My research interest is to investigate the functional influence of the human MSL complex on the DNA damage response.

• Simona Moravcovà, M.Sc.

  PhD student
  

  I graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Biology and a M.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics of Eukaryotes at the Charles University in Prague, Czech republic. My thesis project, which was done at the Department of Tumor Immunology, Institute of Molecular Genetics, concerned both epigenetic and nonepigenetic regulation of expression of immunoactive molecules on tumor cells.

  I am a PhD student and joined the lab in September 2008. My project, funded by IRCSET, involves characterization of the human MSL2 protein and determination of its possible role in ubiquitylation. hMSL2 together with hMOF, is part of the MSL complex which is known to epigenetically regulate gene expression in Drosophila.

• Sandra Clasen, M.Sc.

  PhD student
  

  I joined Dr Rea’s new group in April 2008 as a PhD student. Originally from Germany, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science from both, the FH Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany and the Murdoch University in Perth, Australia in 2006. Immediately after, I started an M.Sc. in Biomolecular Science at the VU Amsterdam. During my Master studies I completed two epigenetics-related research projects in Amsterdam (with Dr. Kooter) and at the MRC Clinical Science Centre in London (with Prof. Festenstein).

  My research interest is the epigenetic regulation of gene expression, especially by the modifications of histones. During my PhD I will characterize the functions of the human MOF enzyme in the regulation of gene expression.