The role of tetraspanin microdomains in angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel formation from existing vessels. It is important in cancer and heart attack/stroke by providing a supply of blood to solid tumours and atherosclerotic plaques, respectively. Angiogenesis is dependent on the proliferation and migration of the endothelial cells that line all blood vessels. Endothelial cell function is regulated by an array of cell surface receptors, adhesion proteins and signalling molecules. Recently it has emerged that several important cell surface proteins are compartmentalised into tetraspanin-enriched membrane microdomains for optimal function. Tetraspanins are key ‘organisers’ of the cell surface and we have found that endothelial cells express up to 20 of the 33 human tetraspanins. However, most of these tetraspanins remain unstudied.

The proposed work will characterise previously unstudied tetraspanins that we have shown to be expressed by endothelial cells. The aim will be to investigate the role of these tetraspanins in angiogenesis through the generation of new antibodies, proteomic identification of associated proteins, RNAi knockdown in primary human endothelial cells and biological assays to examine endothelial cell function. This work may ultimately lead to new drug targets for the treatment of major diseases such as cancer, heart attack and stroke.

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Please find additional funding text below. For further funding details, please see the ‘Funding’ section.
The School of Biosciences offers a number of UK Research Council (e.g. BBSRC, NERC) PhD studentships each year. Fully funded research council studentships are normally only available to UK nationals (or EU nationals resident in the UK) but part-funded studentships may be available to EU applicants resident outside of the UK. The deadline for applications for research council studentships is 31 January each year.

Each year we also have a number of fully funded Darwin Trust Scholarships. These are provided by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh and are for non-UK students wishing to undertake a PhD in the general area of Molecular Microbiology. The deadline for this scheme is also 31 January each year.