Education and Research experience

Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre, Imperial College - Visiting researcher, Occasional postgraduate student

Jan 2007 – May 2008

Project Description: OPCML has recently been identified as a tumour suppressor gene in ovarian cancer, silenced in 80% of cases. Aiming at establishing mechanism of action of this TGS, I was engaged in identification of OPCML-interacting proteins using candidate approach with subsequent verification of interactions. In addition, I was responsible for the majority of technical work in the group.

Project achievements: This optimisation-demanding project revealed two OPCML-interacting targets members of Erb family RTKs EGFR and ErbB2. I successfully co-immunoprecipitated these proteins with OPCML in both directions and demonstrated their co-localisation on the membrane. These results formed basis for further exploration of OPCML involvement in EGFR signalling pathway.

Research Institute for Microbiology and Epidemiology - PhD student in Virology and Immunology

Oct 2005 - Jan 2007

Project description: My PhD thesis was aimed at constructing bacterial “ghosts” (empty bacterial cell walls) carrying on their surface hantaviral nucleocapsid proteins and subsequent assessment of this construct for eliciting protective immune response. Potentially, this project could lead to developing a novel vaccine against Hantaviruses. Project was dropped due to lack of material resources.

Belarusian State University (top national university) - Diploma in Biology-Biotechnology. Biology teaching qualification

2000 - 2005

Overall GPA: 4.5/5.0 (upper second degree). I have received recommendations for postgraduate studies from faculty board.

Diploma project (7 months): Expression, purification and immunological analysis of a recombinant peptide composed of repetitive sequences of antigenic determinants of Puumala virus. Supervisor: Dr. A. Vladyko

Project achievements: Construction and recombinant expression of artificial peptide composed of antigenic regions of Puumala nucleocapsid protein. Antigenic response to this construct was significantly increased as compared to truncated form of N protein commonly used for diagnostic purposes. Thus, a novel inexpensive source of antigen was produced with potential use in hantaviral diagnostics.

Employment

Research Institute for Microbiology and Epidemiology - Research assistant

May 2005 – Oct 2005

Technical Skills

Molecular biology: 4 years of experience in molecular biology techniques: PCR, molecular cloning, qPCR, site-directed mutagenesis, Western blotting (including fluorescence-labelled secondary Ab, Typhoon scanner), siRNA gene knockdown.

Biochemistry: protein expression (in eu- and prokaryotic cells), protein purification (affinity chromatography), co-immunoprecipitation, protein cross-linking studies, membrane isolation and fractionation.

Laser-scanning confocal microscopy and FACS analysis. Substantial experience with Carl Zeiss LSM 510 platform (attended advanced training course) and BD FASCanto flow cytometer.

Functional assays.Proliferation assays, migration assays, apoptosis assay (caspase activation assay).

Tissue culture.More than a year of experience with human cancer cell lines. Transient transfections. Bacterial culture.

Honors/Awards

• Third Degree Diploma, Biology Republic Olympiad, 27 of March, 1999.
• Third Degree Diploma, Biology Republic Olympiad, 31 of March, 2000.

Biology Republic Olympiad amongst high school students takes place every year and is considered as most impartial and prestigious competitive event in the field of biology in the Republic of Belarus.

Transferable skills.

Student supervision. I was engaged in technical mentoring and assistance of two undergraduate students during their research projects. For a short period, I provided confocal microscopy training to MSc and PhD students.

Conference presentations and abstracts

• A.B. McKie, D. Shaposhnikov, I. Okon, H. Gabra. Yeast-2-Hybrid screen identifies Rab-interacting proteins as high probability OPCML-interacting targets, suggesting a role in membrane trafficking. 1st Ovarian Cancer Action international conference, March 7-8, 2008 London, UK. Poster presentation.
• D. Shaposhnnikov, I. Okon, A. B. McKie H. Gabra. OPCML interacts with ErbB family members and abolishes growth factor-induced autophosphorylation of the EGF receptor. 1st Ovarian Cancer Action international conference, March 7-8, 2008 London, UK. Oral talk by by A.B.Mckie.
• E. Fomina, E. Scheslenok, A. Rozhkova, D. Shaposhnikov, A.Vladyko. Construction of an expression plasmid containing repetitive sequences of antigenic determinants from N protein of Puumala virus. International conference “Molecular genetics, genomics, biotechnology”. November 23-25 Minsk, Belarus. Poster presentation.