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Helen Dodson Email

Helen Dodson joined the Discipline of Anatomy as a Lecturer in December 2011. She has a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh (1998). Following on from her first degree she was awarded a place on the Wellcome Trust 4 year PhD programme entitled ‘The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease’ and undertook her doctoral research in the Laboratory of Professor Bill Earnshaw at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with her PhD in 2003. Her doctoral research focused on cell division and in particular the spindle assembly checkpoint which ensures accurate segregation of chromosomes at mitosis. Helen then moved to Galway and worked for a number of years as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Ciaran Morrison in the Biochemistry Department at NUIG. During this time she investigated cellular responses to DNA damage and in particular the phenomena of DNA damage induced centrosome amplification and mitotic catastrophe. Most recently Helen has worked in the laboratory of Dr Andrew Flaus where she has been investigating the expression, distribution and abundance of the DNA damage response protein H2AX in human cells. Helen’s research into the DNA damage response, in collaboration with the Centre for Chromosome Biology at NUIG, is ongoing and she is also developing tools for live cell imaging of cells following DNA damage with colleagues in the Centre for Microscopy and Imaging.

Research Interests:

· Cellular responses to DNA double strand breaks

· H2AX and its role in the DNA damage response

· Development of live cell imaging techniques to follow DNA double strand breaks in real time

Education:

· BSc in Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, 1998

· PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, 2003

Employment:

· Dec. 2011 to date – Lecturer, Discipline of Anatomy, NUI Galway

· May 2010 to Nov. 2011 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Dr Andrew Flaus, CCB, NUI Galway

· Oct. 2003 – April 2010 - Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Prof. Ciaran Morrison, CCB, NUI Galway

· April 2003 – Sept. 2003 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK

Current Collaborations:

Andrew Flaus, CCB, NUI Galway

Scientific Membership:

· Irish Association for Cancer Research

· British Society for Cell Biology

· Biochemistry Society

Publications:

Stephan AK, Kliszczak M, Dodson H, Cooley C, Morrison CG (2011). Roles of vertebrate Smc5 in sister chromatid cohesion and homologous recombinational repair. Mol Cell Biol. 31(7):1369-81.

Inanç, B., Dodson, H.,* and Morrison, C. G (2010). A centrosome-autonomous signal that involves centriole disengagement permits centrosome duplication in G2 phase after DNA damage. Mol Biol Cell. 21(22):3866-77.

Dodson, H and Morrison, C. G (2009). Increased sister chromatid cohesion and DNA damage response factor localization at an enzyme-induced DNA double-strand break in vertebrate cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 37(18):6054-63.

Bourke, E., Dodson, H., Merdes, A., Cuffe, L., Zachos, G., Walker, M., Gillespie, D., and Morrison, C. G. (2007). DNA damage induces Chk1-dependent centrosome amplification. EMBO Rep. 8(6):603-609.

Dodson, H., Wheatley, S. P., and Morrison, C. G. (2007). Involvement of centrosome amplification in radiation-induced mitotic catastrophe. Cell Cycle, 6(3):364-70.

Henzing, A. J., Dodson, H., Reid, J. M., Kaufmann, S. H., Baxter, R. L., Earnshaw, W. C. (2006) Synthesis of novel caspase inhibitors for characterization of the active caspase proteome in vitro and in vivo. J Med Chem. 49(26):7636-45.

Dodson, H.,* Bourke,E., Jeffers, L. J., Vagnarelli, P., Sonoda, E., Takeda, S., Earnshaw, W. C., Merdes, A. and Morrison, C. (2004)Centrosome amplification induced by DNA damage occurs during a prolonged G2 phase and involves ATM. EMBO J. 23: 3864-3873.

Wheatley, S. P., Henzing, A. J., Dodson, H., Khaled, W. and Earnshaw, W. C. (2004) Aurora-B phosphorylation in vitro identifies a residue of survivin that is essential for its localization and binding to inner centromere protein (INCENP) in vivo. J Biol Chem. 279: 5655-60.

Vagnarelli, P., Morrison, C., Dodson, H., Sonoda, E., Takeda, S. and Earnshaw, W. C. (2004) Analysis of Scc1-deficient cells defines a key metaphase role of vertebrate cohesin in linking sister kinetochores. EMBO Rep. 5: 167-71

Morrison, C., Henzing, A. J., Nørregaard Jensen, O., Osheroff, N., Dodson, H., Kandels-Lewis, S. E., Adams, R. R. and Earnshaw, W. C. (2002) Proteomic analysis of human metaphase chromosomes reveals topoisomerase II alpha as an Aurora B substrate. Nucleic Acids Res. 30: 5318-27.

Nishihashi, A., Haraguchi, T., Hiraoka, Y., Ikemura, T., Regnier, V., Dodson, H., Earnshaw, W. C. and Fukagawa, T. (2002) CENP-I is essential for centromere function in vertebrate cells. Developmental Cell 2: 463-476.

* denotes joint first authorship.

Department of Anatomy
National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (0)91 492180; Fax: +353 (0)91 494520
E-mail: Anatomy
This page was last updated Friday, March 23, 2012