Studies and academic degrees:
José Ayté graduated in Pharmacy at Universitat de Barcelona and then joined the Biochemistry Department, where he obtained his PhD working on the mechanisms that regulate the metabolic pathways of cholesterol homeostasis. He pursued his research career working as a postdoctoral fellow in the labs of James DeCaprio (Harvard Medical School, USA) and Paul Nurse (Cancer Research UK). In both laboratories, Dr. Ayté worked on the basic mechanisms that control cell cycle progression. He was recruited by UPF in 2000, where he is the co-director of the Oxidative Stress and Cell Cycle Group.
Research interests:
Using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system, our group is interested in studying the components and molecular mechanisms regulating the mitotic and meiotic cell cycles. Specifically, we are focused in understanding and decipher the signals that activate and repress MBF, an essential transcription factor that regulates cell cycle progression. We are also interested in the changes in the gene expression program that take place when cells switch from mitotic to meiotic division (sexual reproduction), essentially at the level of regulated splicing. We use state-of-the-art methodological approaches in the fields of molecular biology, proteomics and in vivo imaging as a complement to classical genetics.
Teaching:
José Ayté is responsible for the Molecular and Cellular Biology course (Biomedical Engineering). He is also involved in the teaching of Molecular Biology (Biology and Medical degrees) and Biotechnology (Biology degree).