Marisa Martin-Fernandez

Senior STFC fellow

Marisa joined the CLF in 2008. Her research is geared to understanding the intricate network signalling behaviour of cells in their physiological environments within tissues. The aim is describing the basic molecular ingredients, the signalling pathways and the supramolecular structural and spatio-temporal rules regulating signalling outcomes. Methods employed include multi-dimensional and multi-colour single molecule fluorescence imaging, single pair and ensemble FRET and polarisation in conjunction with the modelling of behaviour at atomic resolution within a mathematical framework.

Marisa’s research interests include:

Defining the patterns of structural conformation, association, activation and signal transduction for the four members of the Human Epithelial Growth Factor Receptor family (HER1-4); determination of the conformation and the interactions leading to deregulated cell signalling
Deriving models of ligand-induced behaviour exploiting combined single molecule and ensemble FLIM analysis and systems predictions
Establishing how this is influenced by feed-back loops and internal and external perturbations, e.g. HER mutations (seen in human subjects), receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitors (RTKIs) and function-blocking antibodies

A perspective of fluorescence microscopy for cellular structural biology with EGFR as witness. Martin-Fernandez, M. L. Journal of Microscopy, 00, 1– 19.

Yanan Zhu, Christopher W. Koo, C. Keith Cassidy, Matthew C. Spink, Tao Ni, Laura C. Zanetti-Domingues, Benji Bateman, Marisa L. Martin-Fernandez, Juan Shen, Yuewen Sheng, Yun Song, Zhengyi Yang, Amy C. Rosenzweig & Peijun Zhang. Structure and activity of particulate methane monooxygenase arrays in methanotrophs. Nat Comms. (2022) , 13, 5221 .

C. Qiu, Y. Odarchenko, O. Meng, S. Xu, I. Lezcano-Gonzalez, P. Olalde-Velasco, F. Maccherozzi, L.C. Zanetti Domingues, M.L. Martin-Fernandez & A. Beale. Resolving the effect of oxygen vacancies on Co nanostructures using soft XAS/X-PEEM. ACS Catal. (2022), 12, 15, 9125–913,4