Francesc Posas and Eulàlia de Nadal

Group website

Research Outline

Our group studies how cells detect and respond to environmental changes. We are interested in the characterization of stress-responsive signal transduction pathways, controlled by MAPkinases of the Hog1/p38 family. Using the S. cerevisiae yeast and higher eukaryotic cells as model organisms, we investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in the stress adaptive response required for cell survival across eukaryotes. We focus on several aspects of the cell physiology, such as basic signaling properties of the HOG/p38 pathway, control of cell cycle and regulation of gene expression. Last, using complex engineered networks we implement cellular communications to perform in vivo cellular computation.

Current Projects / Research Lines

• Regulation of SAPK signaling pathways in eukaryotic cells

Study of the signaling properties (signal integration and crosstalk) of the p38/Hog1 SAPK pathway during the dynamic stress response in single cells.

• Defining the functional landscape for a SAPK in a eukaryotic organism

Elucidation of new Hog1 substrates and dissection of the cellular processes involved in stress adaptation.

• Molecular basis for stress-adaptation by the p38 MAPK in mammalian cells

Unraveling the conserved molecular mechanisms between the yeast Hog1 and its mammalian ortholog p38.

• Chromatin dynamics of transcriptional stress response

Characterization of the regulatory mechanisms required for modulation of gene expression in response to stress by the Hog1 and p38 SAPKs.

• Cell cycle control by Hog1 and p38 MAPKs

Characterization of the role of Hog1 and p38 in the regulation of cell cycle progression in response to stress.

• Distributed Biological Computation

Comprehensive understanding of biological computation and its implementation as diabetes treatment.

Team during 2017-18

• Postdocs: Alba Duch, Silvia Tognetti, Manel Joaquin, Arnau Ulsamer

  Ramon Amat, Gerhard Seisenbacher, Jana Sánchez, Carme Solé, Jorge Pérez, René Böttcher, David Canadell, Mariona Nadal.

• PhD students: Arturo Urrios, Berta Canal, Gerard Martínez, Pedro Maseres, Pablo Latorre, Anna Pijuan, Nicolás Ortiz, María Caballero, Predrag Stojakivic
• Technicians: Santiago Cavero, Laia Subirana, Aída Fernández

• Project manager: Montse Morillas.

• Research visits: Du Gang (visiting scholar, Tianjin University of Commerce, Food biotechnology department, Chinese, 2016-2017).

Selected publications 2017-18

• Urrios A, Gonzalez-Flo E, Canadell D, de Nadal E, Macia J, Posas F. (2018) Plug-and-Play Multicellular Circuits with Time-Dependent Dynamic Responses. ACS Synth Biol. 7(4):1095-1104. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssynbio.7b00463

• Duch A, Canal B, Barroso SI, García-Rubio M, Seisenbacher G, Aguilera A, de Nadal E, Posas F. (2018) Multiple signaling kinases target Mrc1 to prevent genomic instability triggered by transcription-replication conflicts. Nat Commun. 9(1):379. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02756-x

• Silva A, Cavero S, Begley V, Solé C, Böttcher R, Chávez S, Posas F, de Nadal E. (2017) Regulation of transcription elongation in response to osmostress. PLoS Genet. 13(11):e1007090. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1007090

• Chang YL, Tseng SF, Huang YC, Shen ZJ, Hsu PH, Hsieh MH, Yang CW, Tognetti S, Canal B, Subirana L, Wang CW, Chen HT, Lin CY, Posas F, Teng SC. (2017) Yeast Cip1 is activated by environmental stress to inhibit Cdk1-G1 cyclins via Mcm1 and Msn2/4. Nat Commun. 8 (1):56. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00080-y

• Stojanovski K, Ferrar T, Benisty H, Uschner F, Delgado J, Jimenez J, Solé C, de Nadal E, Klipp E, Posas F, Serrano L, Kiel C. (2017) Interaction Dynamics Determine Signaling and Output Pathway Responses. Cell Rep. 19(1):136-149. https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)30361-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2211124717303613%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Other relevant information 2017-18

Participation in agreements with private bodies

Cooperation agreement to support technology transfer of Dr. Posas. Fundación Botín (2008-2018).

Patents

PCT “Control of Cancer Progression by Retinoblastoma Phosphorylation”. Submitted on April 7, 2016/ May 2017; EP16382156.4

Congress Organization

Local organizer committee of the 1st FEBS3+ Joint Meeting of the French-Portuguese-Spanish Biochemical and Molecular Biology Societies, Spain (2017).