28^th November at 12:30-13:30
Onsite event
in Biocity building, Åbo Akademi 3^rd floor Biochemistry seminar room, A-side

Prof. Rachel Lennon, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester, UK
Too much turnover – basement membrane dynamics in disease

Host: Johanna Ivaska (johanna.ivaska@utu.fi)

Coffee and pulla will be served beforehand, so please arrive a few minutes earlier. First come, first served.

Prof. Lennon is available on Thursday for scientific discussions. If you would like to book a meeting with her, please contact Johanna Ivaska (johanna.ivaska@utu.fi). Also, Rachel will be Jasmin Kaivola’s PhD opponent on Friday 29th of November in Calonia (Cal I auditorium) at 12.00.

Understanding mechanisms of glomerular disease, the leading cause of kidney disease in adults and children. The glomerular capillary wall is a highly sophisticated filtration barrier that comprises specialised endothelial cells, the glomerular basement membrane and specialised epithelial cells known as podocytes. Basement membrane regulation is fundamentally required for barrier integrity. The Lennon lab have developed proteomic methods to resolve the cell adhesion-matrix interface and have interrogated ultrastructure using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. Using a combination of in vitro systems (glomerular cell coculture, kidney organoids) and animal models (mouse, zebrafish) they seek to understand mechanisms of glomerular barrier injury and repair.

Selected publications

Stark Z, Byrne AB, Sampson MG, Lennon R, Mallett AJ. A guide to gene-disease relationships in nephrology. Nat Rev Nephrol. 2024 Oct 23. doi: 10.1038/s41581-024-00900-7.

Tian P, Koudis NM, Morais MRPT, Pickard A, Fresquet M, Adamson A, Derby B, Lennon R. Collagen IV assembly is influenced by fluid flow in kidney cell-derived matrices. Cells Dev. 2024 Sep;179:203923. doi:0.1016/j.cdev.2024.203923.

Chew C, Brand OJ, Yamamura T, Lawless C, Morais MRPT, Zeef L, Lin IH, Howell G, Lui S, Lausecker F, Jagger C, Shaw TN, Krishnan S, McClure FA, Bridgeman H, Wemyss K, Konkel JE, Hussell T, Lennon R. Kidney resident macrophages have distinct subsets and multifunctional roles. Matrix Biol. 2024 Mar;127:23-37. doi: 10.1016/j.matbio.2024.02.002.

Morais MRPT, Tian P, O’cualain R, Lawless C, Lennon R. Protocol to characterize basement membranes during kidney development using mass spectrometry-based label-free quantitative proteomics. STAR Protoc. 2023 Dec 15;4(4):102741. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102741.

Hewitt RJ, Puttur F, Gaboriau DCA, Fercoq F, Fresquet M, Traves WJ, Yates LL Walker SA, Molyneaux PL, Kemp SV, Nicholson AG, Rice A, Roberts E, Lennon R, Carlin LM, Byrne AJ, Maher TM, Lloyd CM. Lung extracellular matrix modulates KRT5+ basal cell activity in pulmonary fibrosis. Nat Commun. 2023 Sep 27;14(1):6039. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41621-y.