Elena Seiradake elected into 2018 EMBO Young Investigator Programme

Associate Professor Elena Seiradake

Elena Seiradake has been elected into the 2018 EMBO Young Investigator Programme. This prestigious programme recognises some of Europe’s best young scientists and provides academic, practical and financial support to help them realise their potential as world-class researchers.

This year 28 Young Investigators have been elected.

Elena’s laboratory is investigating the structural and functional mechanisms by which adhesion GPCRs play a role in neural and vascular systems. A defining feature of certain adhesion GPCRs is the presence of a large external domain through which they can form oligomers and larger ‘super-complexes’ with other membrane receptors. Using X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and other high resolution techniques, Elena is determining the structures of individual adhesion GPCRs and their complexes, analysing how ligands impact on these receptor complexes and which complexes are formed in vivo. Her work is beginning to provide insights into how adhesion GPCRs increase their functional repertoire by forming different context-dependent higher-order complexes.

Deepa Nath
27th October 2017