OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
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Megakaryocytes are one of the rarest, yet largest, cells in the human body and have huge synthetic capabilities – with a handful of megakaryocytes releasing billions of platelets into our bloodstream every day. To achieve this, they undergo a unique form of the cell cycle that results is successive rounds of whole genome doubling (WGD) and an average ploidy of 16N. They then give rise to platelets – with no nucleus at all. This talk will cover two projects:
The first – focusing on these fascinating and unusual aspects of their cell biology. Firstly, we performed a detailed interrogation of the megakaryocyte genome to unpick how megakaryocytes bypass cell cycle checkpoints and tolerate whole genome duplication while retaining p53 responses to other triggers, and examined the consequences for the genome integrity. Unexpectedly, we uncovered a conserved tolerance mechanism shared between megakaryocytes and WGD+, p53-intact solid tumours.
In the second part of the talk, I will outline our recent discovery that despite lacking a cell nucleus, platelets contain a repertoire of DNA fragments acquired by sequestration of cell free DNA during peripheral circulation, including free fetal and cancer cell-derived DNA.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Beth is a Professor of Haematology and Group Leader at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford. Her group has two research areas – identifying targetable disease mechanisms in myeloid blood cancers, and studying the cell biology of megakaryocytes and platelets, and their roles in cancer. Beth spends 20% of her time in the clinic, including running clinical trials with a particular interest in emerging mutation-selective targeted therapies for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms, and has a national role in the delivery of clinical research as Chair of the Blood Cancer UK Research Network MPN Subgroup. Outside of work, she enjoys adventures with her family and running around beautiful Oxford with her overly-enthusiastic but surprisingly obedient cockapoo.
