Hudson Seminar Series - "Mitochondrial DNA, why bother?", 29th June

This week's Hudson Seminar will be held, Thursday 29th June at 12:00pm-1:00pm in Seminar rooms 1 & 2, Level 2, TRF Building.

The speaker will be Professor Jus St. John, Head of the Centre for Genetic Disease and Group Head Mitochondrial Genetics Group, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

A light lunch and refreshments will follow the presentation. 

Jus St. John’s research focuses on understanding how mitochondrial DNA is transmitted and replicated. Using a variety of assisted reproductive technologies and embryonic and cancer stem cell models, he has described mitochondrial DNA replication events in oocytes, embryos and undifferentiated and differentiating cells and why they are important to developmental outcome. He has also shown how mitochondrial DNA copy number is regulated in a cell-specific manner by DNA methylation of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial DNA-specific polymerase; and how mtDNA haplotypes influence chromosomal gene expression patterns. He is using these outcomes to develop mini-pig models of autologous mitochondrial supplementation to enhance developmental outcomes and other assisted reproductive strategies to regulate the transmission of mitochondrial DNA from one generation to the next. He has published in The Lancet, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Cell Biology, Nucleic Acids Research, Stem Cells, Cell Death and Differentiation, Journal of Cell Science, and Genetics. In 2013, he received the Society for Reproductive Biology’s Award for Excellence in Reproductive Biology Research.