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Staff Profiles

Dr James Gahan

PhD

Contact Details

Senior Lecturer
School of Biological & Chemical Sciences
University of Galway
E: JAMESMICHAEL.GAHAN@universityofgalway.ie
 
researcher
 

Biography

James Gahan received his PhD in 2017 from the University of Galway. He then performed Postdoctoral research first at the University of Bergen in Norway and then at the University of Oxford and University of California, San Francisco. During this time he was awarded a Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. In 2024 James returned to the University of Galway as a principle investigator in the Centre for Chromosome Biology and Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences. He was also awarded the prestigious ERC starting grant. 
James's research focuses on early animal evolution. He specifically works on choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals, and addressed the mechanisms of gene regulation in these organisms. His lab employs cutting edge genome engineering, bioinformatics and microscope to address these questions.  


Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2024) 'Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization as a Tool for Studying the Specification and Differentiation of Cell Types in Nematostella vectensis'
Tournière, Océane and Busengdal, Henriette and Gahan, James M. and Rentzsch, Fabian (2024) 'Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization as a Tool for Studying the Specification and Differentiation of Cell Types in Nematostella vectensis'. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2784 [DOI] [Details]
(2023) 'Pathway to Independence: the future of developmental biology'
Agarwal, Priti and Cadart, Clotilde and Fort, Loic and Gahan, James and Greenspan, Leah and Juan, Thomas and Kameneva, Polina and Miao, Yuchuan (2023) 'Pathway to Independence: the future of developmental biology'. Development (Cambridge), 150 (19) [DOI] [Details]
(2023) 'Cnidofest 2022: hot topics in cnidarian research'
Gahan, James M. and Cartwright, Paulyn and Nicotra, Matthew L. and Schnitzler, Christine E. and Steinmetz, Patrick R. H. and Juliano, Celina E. (2023) 'Cnidofest 2022: hot topics in cnidarian research'. EvoDevo, 14 (1) [DOI] [Details]
(2022) 'A developmental role for the chromatin-regulating CoREST complex in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis'
Gahan, James M. and Leclère, Lucas and Hernandez-Valladares, Maria and Rentzsch, Fabian (2022) 'A developmental role for the chromatin-regulating CoREST complex in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis'. BMC Biology, 20 (1) [DOI] [Details]
(2022) 'Insm1-expressing neurons and secretory cells develop from a common pool of progenitors in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis'
Tournière, Océane and Gahan, James M. and Busengdal, Henriette and Bartsch, Natascha and Rentzsch, Fabian (2022) 'Insm1-expressing neurons and secretory cells develop from a common pool of progenitors in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis'. Science Advances, 8 (16) [DOI] [Details]
(2022) 'TRPM2 causes sensitization to oxidative stress but attenuates high-temperature injury in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis'
Ehrlich, Wiebke and Gahan, James M. and Rentzsch, Fabian and Kühn, Frank J.P. (2022) 'TRPM2 causes sensitization to oxidative stress but attenuates high-temperature injury in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis'. Journal of Experimental Biology, 225 (6) [DOI] [Details]
(2022) 'A cellular and molecular analysis of SoxB-driven neurogenesis in a cnidarian'
Chrysostomou, Eleni and Flici, Hakima and Gornik, Sebastian G. and Salinas-Saavedra, Miguel and Gahan, James M. and McMahon, Emma T. and Thompson, Kerry and Hanley, Shirley and Kilcoyne, Michelle and Schnitzler, Christine E. and Gonzalez, Paul and Baxevanis, Andreas D. and Frank, Uri (2022) 'A cellular and molecular analysis of SoxB-driven neurogenesis in a cnidarian'. eLife, 11 [DOI] [Details]
(2022) 'Histone demethylase Lsd1 is required for the differentiation of neural cells in Nematostella vectensis'
Gahan, James M. and Kouzel, Ian U. and Jansen, Kamilla Ormevik and Burkhardt, Pawel and Rentzsch, Fabian (2022) 'Histone demethylase Lsd1 is required for the differentiation of neural cells in Nematostella vectensis'. Nature Communications, 13 (1) [DOI] [Details]
(2019) 'Evochromo: Towards a synthesis of chromatin biology and evolution'
Drinnenberg, Ines A. and Berger, Frédéric and Elsässer, Simon J. and Andersen, Peter R. and Ausió, Juan and Bickmore, Wendy A. and Blackwell, Alexander R. and Erwin, Douglas H. and Gahan, James M. and Gaut, Brandon S. and Harvey, Zachary H. and Henikoff, Steven and Kao, Joyce Y. and Kurdistani, Siavash K. and Lemos, Bernardo and Levine, Mia T. and Luger, Karolin and Malik, Harmit S. and Martın-Durán, José M. and Peichel, Catherine L. and Renfree, Marilyn B. and Rutowicz, Kinga and Sarkies, Peter and Schmitz, Robert J. and Technau, Ulrich and Thornton, Joseph W. and Warnecke, Tobias and Wolfe, Kenneth H. (2019) 'Evochromo: Towards a synthesis of chromatin biology and evolution'. Development (Cambridge), 146 (19) [DOI] [Details]
(2016) 'The interstitial stem cells in Hydractinia and their role in regeneration'
Gahan, James M and Bradshaw, Brian and Flici, Hakima and Frank, Uri (2016) 'The interstitial stem cells in Hydractinia and their role in regeneration'. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 40 [DOI] [Details]