Featured Researcher: Dr. Alex Cheong
My Research
I am a molecular biologist working on how transcription factors regulate gene expression. This is achieved through a new technique that I developed here at UCD, based on the secreted Gaussia luciferase. This new method, coupled with thermostatiscal analysis and mathematical modelling, enables me to unravel the complex transcriptional crosstalks at the promoter level. I have recently applied this technique to describe crosstalks between the transcription factors HIF and NfKB during hypoxic inflammation.
>> Read more: Illuminating cross talk between signalling factors
Role
Senior Research Fellow working with Professor Cormac Taylor
Hometown
Port-Louis, Mauritius, Indian Ocean
Career Path
I was born and raised in the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. After my A-levels, I won a full scholarship to study Pharmacology at University College London. I enjoyed my final year project so much that I took on a British Heart Foundation PhD studentship at the University of Leeds to study vascular ion channels with Prof David Beech. I moved from electrophysiology and pharmacology to molecular biology during my postdoc (with Dr Ian Wood) and won a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellowship to study transcriptional repressors.
Publications
1. Bruning U, Fitzpatrick SF, Frank T, Birtwistle M, Taylor CT, Cheong A. (2011). NFκB and HIF display synergistic behaviour during hypoxic inflammation. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. In Press. (IF: 7.047).
'This is the first paper to use thermostatiscs to describe transcriptional crosstalks. It is also my first last author publication'
2. Bruning U, Cerone L, Neufeld Z, Fitzpatrick SF, Cheong A, Scholz CC, Simpson DA, Leonard MO, Tambuwala MM, Cummins EP, Taylor CT. (2011). MicroRNA-155 promotes resolution of hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha activity during prolonged hypoxia. Molecular Cellular Biology. 31(19):4087-96. (IF: 6.188).
'This is the first paper to make use of my Gaussia luciferase construct to monitor transcriptional activity temporally'
3. Cheong A, Li J, Sukumar P, Kumar B, Zeng F, Riches K, Munsch C, Wood IC, Porter KE, Beech DJ. (2011). Potent suppression of vascular smooth muscle cell migration and human neointimal hyperplasia by KV1.3 channel blockers. Cardiovascular Research. 89(2):282-9. (IF: 6.183).
'Here I identified an ion channel as a drug target for neointimal hyperplasia'
4. Milligan CJ, Li J, Sukumar P, Majeed Y, Dallas ML, English A, Emery P, Porter KE, Smith AM, McFadzean I, Beccano-Kelly D, Bahnasi Y, Cheong A, Naylor J, Zeng F, Liu X, Gamper N, Jiang L-H, Pearson HA, Peers C, Robertson B, Beech DJ. (2009). Robotic multi-well planar patch-clamp for native and primary mammalian cells. Nature Protocols. 4(2):244-55. (IF: 8.362).
'Robots are always cool. In this paper, we describe their use for high throughput electrophysiology'
5. Cheong A, Bingham AJ, Li J, Kumar B, Sukumar P, Munsch C, Buckley N, Neylon CB, Porter KE, Beech DJ, Wood IC. (2005). Downregulated REST transcription factor is a switch enabling critical potassium channel expression and cell proliferation. Molecular Cell. 20(1):45-52. (IF: 14.447).
(This is the first paper describing the role of the neuronal transcriptional repressor REST in controlling a vascular ion channel).
Why choose UCD Conway?
I believe in a systems biology approach to understanding biological observation, and Systems Biology Ireland is the ideal place for this. I enjoy the interactions between wet and dry labs, and so far this collaboration has been very fruitful, with promises of even more exciting discoveries.