Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award winner

Helen Carstairs

After graduating from the MSci course in Physics at the University of St Andrews in 2003, Helen Carstairs joined the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Oxford. After the initial year of taught courses and short projects she started her DPhil research in Professor Andrew Turberfield’s group in 2005. The focus of this group is to use DNA as a structural material to self-assemble extended two-dimensional DNA lattices, three-dimensional nanostructures such as tetrahedra, and also DNA motors where oligonucleotides are the track, motor and fuel source. During her DPhil she collaborated with Professor Rob Cross and Dr Junichiro Yajima at the Marie Curie Research Institute to investigate ways of using DNA to template the orientation and separation of single heads of the motor protein kinesin. They have used a DNA scaffold and a fusion protein containing a single kinesin head and a DNA-binding zinc-finger motif to self-assemble shuttles with a controlled geometry and stoichiometry. By studying the velocity and processivity of these shuttles they hope to learn more about the way that the heads act together in wild-type motors. She has just started a post doctoral research position in Oxford to continue this work.