Jump to content

Victoria Cowling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victoria Haigh Cowling
Victoria Cowling
NationalityEnglish
Known forStudy of Transcriptional Control
SpouseTristan Henderson
AwardsWomen In Cell Biology Early Career Medal
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry

Victoria Haigh Cowling FRSE is an English biologist who received the Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology in 2014.[1][2] Cowling is Professor of Biology, Lister Institute Fellow, MRC Senior Fellow and Deputy Head of The Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression at the University of Dundee.[3][4][5]

Education and academic career

[edit]

Victoria Cowling studied for a BA(Hons) in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. She moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and was awarded a PhD for investigating the regulation of caspase activity during programmed cell death with Gerard Evan and Julian Downward. After postdoctoral studies at Dartmouth College and Princeton University, with Mike Cole, investigating c-Myc oncogene function, Cowling set up her research group at the Division of Cell Signalling and Immunology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee in 2007. In 2012, she joined the MRC-Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, and in 2015 joined The Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression.

Research interests

[edit]

During her postdoctoral studies at Dartmouth College, Victoria Cowling developed her interest in transcriptional control with her report that Myc can induce mRNA cap methylation.[6][7] Since setting up her own group at the MRC-Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Cowling has continued to investigate the regulation and function of the mRNA cap, aiming to develop new therapies targeted at inhibiting tumour cell and parasite growth and proliferation.[8][9][10][11]

Professional associations and awards

[edit]
  • In 2007, Cowling was awarded an MRC Career Development Award.[12]
  • In 2011, Cowling was awarded The Lister Research Prize.[4][5]
  • In 2013, Cowling joined the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Young Investigator Program.[13]
  • In 2014, Cowling was awarded an MRC Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship.[14]
  • In 2014, Cowling was awarded the Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology.[1][2]
  • In 2014, Cowling was nominated for membership of AcademiaNet by EMBO.[15]
  • In 2017, Cowling was awarded an ERC consolidator grant to investigate mRNA cap regulation and function in CD8 T cells.[16]
  • In 2018, Cowling received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.[17]
  • In 2019, Cowling was named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[18]

Personal life

[edit]

Victoria Cowling is married to Tristan Henderson, a computer scientist at St. Andrews University.[19] They have two daughters.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal Winner: Victoria Cowling | British Society for Cell Biology". Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b Cowling, V; Bobrowska, A (15 August 2015). "Victoria Cowling". Journal of Cell Science. 128 (16): 2953–2954. doi:10.1242/jcs.176693. PMID 26276977.
  3. ^ VHCowling (30 August 2013). "Professor Victoria Cowling". School of Life Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Current Lister Prize Fellows".
  5. ^ a b "Lister Fellow Profile of Victoria Cowling". 3 May 2018.
  6. ^ Cowling, Victoria H.; Cole, Michael D. (15 April 2007). "HATs Off to Capping: A New Mechanism for Myc". Cell Cycle. 6 (8): 907–909. doi:10.4161/cc.6.8.4123. PMID 17404507.
  7. ^ Cowling, Victoria H.; Cole, Michael D. (15 March 2007). "The Myc Transactivation Domain Promotes Global Phosphorylation of the RNA Polymerase II Carboxy-Terminal Domain Independently of Direct DNA Binding". Molecular and Cellular Biology. 27 (6): 2059–2073. doi:10.1128/MCB.01828-06. PMC 1820498. PMID 17242204.
  8. ^ Fernandez-Sanchez, Maria Elena; Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis, Thomas; Preston, Gavin; Lawlor, Margaret A.; Cowling, Victoria H. (December 2009). "S -Adenosyl Homocysteine Hydrolase Is Required for Myc-Induced mRNA Cap Methylation, Protein Synthesis, and Cell Proliferation". Molecular and Cellular Biology. 29 (23): 6182–6191. doi:10.1128/MCB.00973-09. PMC 2786700. PMID 19805518.
  9. ^ Cowling, Victoria H. (15 January 2010). "Regulation of mRNA cap methylation". Biochemical Journal. 425 (2): 295–302. doi:10.1042/BJ20091352. PMC 2825737. PMID 20025612.
  10. ^ Grasso, Laura; Suska, Olga; Davidson, Lindsay; Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis, Thomas; Williamson, Ritchie; Wasmus, Lize; Wiedlich, Simone; Peggie, Mark; Stavridis, Marios P.; Cowling, Victoria H. (August 2016). "mRNA Cap Methylation in Pluripotency and Differentiation". Cell Reports. 16 (5): 1352–1365. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2016.06.089. PMC 4977272. PMID 27452456.
  11. ^ Varshney, Dhaval; Lombardi, Olivia; Schweikert, Gabriele; Dunn, Sianadh; Suska, Olga; Cowling, Victoria H. (May 2018). "mRNA Cap Methyltransferase, RNMT-RAM, Promotes RNA Pol II-Dependent Transcription". Cell Reports. 23 (5): 1530–1542. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.04.004. PMC 5946721. PMID 29719263.
  12. ^ "Major new funding to attract world's best in science and innovation". GOV.UK. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  13. ^ adit. "23 researchers join network of EMBO Young Investigators". EMBO. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  14. ^ SHussain (1 October 2013). "£2.5 million MRC Senior Fellowship Award for Cancer Researcher". School of Life Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  15. ^ "Prof. Victoria Cowling - AcademiaNet". www.academia-net.org. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  16. ^ "ERC Grants 2017" (PDF).
  17. ^ amycameron (28 June 2018). "Professor Victoria Cowling receives Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award". School of Life Sciences. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  18. ^ "Victoria Cowling made Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh". GRE. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  19. ^ "Tristan Henderson - University of St Andrews". risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2019.