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Fellow Aleksandra Watson
Fellow

Dr Aleksandra A Watson

Official Fellow; Tutor; Maplethorpe Fellow in Biochemistry; Director of Studies; Tutor

Contact
aaw36@cam.ac.uk⁠

Degrees and honours

  • PhD (by Incorporation) Cantab
  • DPhil Oxon
  • MBiochem Oxon (Hons)

Research interests

I am interested in structural biology and have applied this to the study of immune receptors, snake venoms and epigenetic regulators. 

Biography

Aleksandra received an MBiochem in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from Oxford University and completed her DPhil in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the same institution. Here, Aleksandra investigated the structural nature of protein-protein interactions in immune surveillance.

Aleksandra received a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship based at the Biochemistry Department to study the regulation of DNA packaging into a compartment 40,000 times smaller. This packaging renders DNA inaccessible to essential processes involved in cell development and cancer progression, and must be tightly controlled.

Aleksandra teaches Part IA Natural Sciences, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine undergraduates, and is the Maplethorpe Fellow in Biological Sciences. Aleksandra is also the Director of Studies for Part IA and IB Biological Natural Sciences and Part II-III Biochemistry.

Authored work

  • Zhang W, Aubert A, Gomez de Segura JM, Karuppasamy M, Basu S, Murthy AS., Diamante A, Drury TA., Balmer J, Cramard J, Watson AA, Lando D, Lee SF, Palayret M, Kloet SL, Smits AH, Deery MJ, Vermeulen M, Hendrich B, Klenerman D, Schaffitzel C, Berger I, Laue ED. The Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase Complex NuRD Is Built from Preformed Catalytically Active Sub-modules. J Mol Biol. 2016 Jul 17;428(14):2931-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2016.04.025. Epub 2016 Apr 23.

     

    Architecture of TAF11/TAF13/TBP complex suggests novel regulation properties of general transcription factor TFIID. Gupta K, Watson AA, Baptista T, Scheer E, Chambers AL, Koehler C, Zou J, Obong-Ebong I, Kandiah E, Temblador A, Round A, Forest E, Man P, Bieniossek C, Laue ED, Lemke EA, Rappsilber J, Robinson CV, Devys D, Tora L, Berger I. Elife. 2017 Nov 7;6. pii: e30395. doi: 10.7554/eLife.30395.

     

    Watson AA, Mahajan P, Mertens HD, Deery MJ, Zhang W, Pham P, Du X, Bartke T, Zhang W, Edlich C, Berridge G, Chen Y, Burgess-Brown NA, Kouzarides T, Wiechens N, Owen-Hughes T, Svergun DI, Gileadi O, Laue ED. The PHD and Chromo Domains Regulate the ATPase Activity of the Human Chromatin Remodeler CHD4. J Mol Biol. 2012 Sep 7;422(1):3-17.

     

    Watson AA, Lebedev AA, Hall BA, Fenton-May AE, Vagin AA, Dejnirattisai W, Mongkolsapaya J, Felce J, Screaton GR, Murshudov GN, O’Callaghan CA. Structural flexibility of the macrophage Dengue virus receptor CLEC5A: implications for ligand binding and signaling. J Biol Chem. 2011 Jul 8;286(27):24208-18. F1000 recommended.

     

    Watson AA, Christou CM, James JR, Fenton-May AE, Moncayo GE, Mistry AR, Davis SJ, Gilbert RJ, Chakera A, O’Callaghan CA. The Platelet Receptor CLEC-2 is Active as a Dimer. Biochemistry. 2009 Nov 24;48(46):10988-96.

     

    Watson AA, Brown J, Harlos K, Eble JA, Walter TS, and O'Callaghan CA. The crystal structure and mutational binding analysis of the extracellular domain of the platelet-activating receptor CLEC-2. J Biol Chem. 2007 282, 3165-3172.

Subjects
Natural Sciences Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology Medicine