Oxygen Homeostasis – new insights into an ancient problem
Oxygen homeostasis has been a constant challenge to life on earth for at least the last ~600 million years, for which a number of distinct solutions have likely separately evolved. In mammals, the current repertoire of oxygen sensing mechanisms appears insufficient to explain the complexity of responses observed, which vary enormously in timing, magnitude and sensitivity. Our group is interested in defining new molecular mechanisms of oxygen sensing and matching these with unresolved physiological responses to hypoxia. In this talk I will cover our discovery of a new oxygen sensing pathway transduced through enzymatic N-terminal cysteine dioxygenation, and our efforts to better understand its role in integrated mammalian physiology, focusing on the regulation of cardiovascular system in response to hypoxia.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

I received a B.Sc. in Physiology from King’s College London, where I then undertook a Ph.D. in vascular physiology with Giovanni Mann, exploring responses to low oxygen conditions in endothelial cells. I then joined Peter Ratcliffe’s lab in the Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford in 2018 to work on novel hypoxia signalling pathways. In 2020, I took up a Junior Research Fellowship in medical sciences at St. Catherine’s College, and in 2025 I moved to DPAG to start my own lab, funded by a BHF Intermediate Basic Sciences Research Fellowship and Wellcome Discovery Award.
Date: 6 June 2025, 13:00
Venue: Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Venue Details: Sherrington Building
Speaker: Dr Tom Keeley (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Organising department: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organisers: Dr Mootaz Salman (DPAG, University of Oxford), Associate Professor Samira Lakhal-Littleton (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: events@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor David Paterson (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Part of: DPAG Head of Department Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Hannah Simm