Professor Robin Allshire
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Talk Title
Epigenetic routes to antifungal/fungicide resistance
Biography
Research: His group demonstrated that centromeres of the model fungus fission yeast contain heterochromatin that silences embedded genes. They subsequently showed that this heterochromatin is crucial for ensuring sister-centromere cohesion, promoting CENP-A chromatin, and thus, kinetochore assembly. His team discovered that histone H3 lysine 9 methylation acts as a genuine epigenetic mark, enabling the transmission of information through cell division. Recently, they found that this epigenetic mechanism allows fission yeast to develop resistance to antifungal drugs without DNA alterations. This finding may have revealed an important, hidden cellular mechanism through which pathogenic fungi become resistant to the limited number of available antifungal agents in both clinical and agricultural settings. Currently, they aim to understand the rare events that drive fungal adaptation to environmental insults, such as fungicides and antifungal drugs, through epigenetic processes.
Academic journey: 1981 B.A. Genetics Trinity College, University of Dublin; 1981-1985: Ph.D. MRC Mammalian Genome Unit, Edinburgh with Ed Southern & Chris Bostock. 1985-1989: Postdoc with Nick Hastie, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh. 1989-1990: Independent Researcher, CSHL, NY, USA. 1990-2002: Tenured Scientist MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh. 2002-present: Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh.
Awards: Elected EMBO member 1998; Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh 2005. Fellow, Royal Society, London 2011. Genetics Society Medal 2013. Fellow, Academy of Medical Sciences 2020.