Asifa Akhtar

Asifa Akhtar (born February 19, 1971 ) is a molecular biologist who has made significant contributions in the field of chromosome regulation. She is senior group leader and director of the department for chromatin regulation at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics. In July 2020 she became the first international and female Vice President of the Biology and Medicine Section of the Max Planck Society.

Career

Asifa Akhtar is originally from Karachi, Pakistan, and received a BSc in Biology from University College London . She then moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) to do a PhD on transcription regulation in Richard Treisman's laboratory . Akhtar's postdoc studies on chromatin regulation were carried out in Peter Becker's laboratory in Germany, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, and at the Adolf Butenandt Institute , Munich. Akhtar became a group leader at EMBL in 2001 and moved to the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg in 2009 , where she runs her own laboratory. Akhtar is the editor of the Journal of Cell Science . On July 1, 2020, she was elected Vice President of the Biology and Medicine Section of the Max Planck Society.

Research interests

Asifa Akhtar's main research area is the investigation of chromatin and epigenetic mechanisms. Using Drosophila melanogaster as an experimental model , Akhtar is investigating how dose compensation works in the regulation of the X chromosome . Studies have also focused on how the RNA nuclear helicase , DHX9, protects the genome from the harmful effects of transposon insertion. More recently, Akhtar has investigated how transcription fidelity is affected by changes in the nucleosome landscape.

Awards and honors

2008 Early Career Award from the European Life Science Organization (ELSO)
2013 Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)
2017 Awarded the Wilhelm Feldberg Prize
2019 admission as a member of the Section Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Web links

Member entry of Asifa Akhtar (with picture and curriculum vitae) at the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Individual evidence

↑ What 10,000 fruit flies have to tell us about differences between the sexes ( en ) July 19, 2012.
↑ Management Board .
↑ New team, new Ideas ( en-us ) July 1, 2020.
↑ The logistics on the drosophila X chromosome ( en-us ) October 2, 2015.
^ Michael Way: New Editor on Journal of Cell Science . In: J Cell Sci . 132, No. 2, January 15, 2019, ISSN 0021-9533 , p. Jcs229740. doi : 10.1242 / jcs.229740 . PMID 30670474 .
↑ Claudia Isabelle Keller Valsecchi, M. Felicia Basilicata, Giuseppe Semplicio, Plamen Georgiev, Noel Marie Gutierrez, Asifa Akhtar: Facultative dosage compensation of developmental genes on autosomes in Drosophila and mouse embryonic stem cells . In: Nature Communications . 9, No. 1, 2018, ISSN 2041-1723 , p. 3626. bibcode : 2018NatCo ... 9.3626V . doi : 10.1038 / s41467-018-05642-2 . PMID 30194291 . PMC 6128902 (free full text).
↑ Asifa Akhtar, Lars M. Steinmetz, Nicholas M. Luscombe, Thomas Manke, Sunil Raja, Wu Wei, Thomas Conrad, Fidel Ramírez, Filipe Tavares Cadete: Functional interplay between MSL1 and CDK7 controls RNA polymerase II Ser5 phosphorylation . In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology . 23, No. 6, June 2016, ISSN 1545-9985 , pp. 580-589. doi : 10.1038 / nsmb.3233 . PMID 27183194 .
↑ Asifa Akhtar, Rolf Ofen, Thomas Manke, Gerhard Mittler, Cecilia Pessoa Rodrigues, Vivek Bhardwaj, Daniel Maticzka, İbrahim Avşar Ilık, Tuğçe Aktaş: DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects originating from the Alu invasion of the human genome . In: Nature . 544, No. 7648, April 2017, ISSN 1476-4687 , pp. 115-119. bibcode : 2017Natur.544..115A . doi : 10.1038 / nature21715 . PMID 28355180 .
↑ Kin Chung Lam, Ho-Ryun Chung, Giuseppe Semplicio, Shantanu S. Iyer, Aline Gaub, Vivek Bhardwaj, Herbert Holz, Plamen Georgiev, Asifa Akhtar: The NSL complex-mediated nucleosome landscape is required to maintain transcription fidelity and suppression of transcription noise . In: Genes & Development . 33, No. 7-8, April 1, 2019, ISSN 0890-9369 , pp. 452-465. doi : 10.1101 / gad.321489.118 . PMID 30819819 . PMC 6446542 (free full text).

personal data
SURNAME	Akhtar, Asifa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	19th February 1971

[1] What 10,000 fruit flies have to tell us about differences between the sexes ( en ) July 19, 2012.

[2] Management Board .

[3] New team, new Ideas ( en-us ) July 1, 2020.

[4] The logistics on the drosophila X chromosome ( en-us ) October 2, 2015.

[5] Michael Way: New Editor on Journal of Cell Science . In: J Cell Sci . 132, No. 2, January 15, 2019, ISSN 0021-9533 , p. Jcs229740. doi : 10.1242 / jcs.229740 . PMID 30670474 .

[6] Claudia Isabelle Keller Valsecchi, M. Felicia Basilicata, Giuseppe Semplicio, Plamen Georgiev, Noel Marie Gutierrez, Asifa Akhtar: Facultative dosage compensation of developmental genes on autosomes in Drosophila and mouse embryonic stem cells . In: Nature Communications . 9, No. 1, 2018, ISSN 2041-1723 , p. 3626. bibcode : 2018NatCo ... 9.3626V . doi : 10.1038 / s41467-018-05642-2 . PMID 30194291 . PMC 6128902 (free full text).

[7] Asifa Akhtar, Lars M. Steinmetz, Nicholas M. Luscombe, Thomas Manke, Sunil Raja, Wu Wei, Thomas Conrad, Fidel Ramírez, Filipe Tavares Cadete: Functional interplay between MSL1 and CDK7 controls RNA polymerase II Ser5 phosphorylation . In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology . 23, No. 6, June 2016, ISSN 1545-9985 , pp. 580-589. doi : 10.1038 / nsmb.3233 . PMID 27183194 .

[8] Asifa Akhtar, Rolf Ofen, Thomas Manke, Gerhard Mittler, Cecilia Pessoa Rodrigues, Vivek Bhardwaj, Daniel Maticzka, İbrahim Avşar Ilık, Tuğçe Aktaş: DHX9 suppresses RNA processing defects originating from the Alu invasion of the human genome . In: Nature . 544, No. 7648, April 2017, ISSN 1476-4687 , pp. 115-119. bibcode : 2017Natur.544..115A . doi : 10.1038 / nature21715 . PMID 28355180 .

[9] Kin Chung Lam, Ho-Ryun Chung, Giuseppe Semplicio, Shantanu S. Iyer, Aline Gaub, Vivek Bhardwaj, Herbert Holz, Plamen Georgiev, Asifa Akhtar: The NSL complex-mediated nucleosome landscape is required to maintain transcription fidelity and suppression of transcription noise . In: Genes & Development . 33, No. 7-8, April 1, 2019, ISSN 0890-9369 , pp. 452-465. doi : 10.1101 / gad.321489.118 . PMID 30819819 . PMC 6446542 (free full text).