Helen May-Simera
Primary cilia regulation of signalling in development and disease
Primary cilia are microtubule-based cellular appendages that function as sensory organelles. Ignored for decades, they are now known to serve as cellular signalling hubs sensing environmental cues and are pivotal for organ development and tissue homeostasis. Defects in primary cilia lead to a plethora of human diseases, collectively termed ciliopathies, the two most common phenotypes of which include retinal degeneration and renal disease. One of the key roles of the primary cilium is to regulate various signalling pathways. One of the first signalling pathways shown to be associated with the primary cilium is the wingless (WNT) signalling pathway, known to regulate diverse processes during development, including cell fate, structural remodelling and cell polarity.
Positions held
- Since 2021: University Professor, Institute of Molecular Physiology, Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz
- 2015 - 2021: Junior Professor, Institute of Molecular Physiology, Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU), Mainz
- 2012 - 2014: Research Fellow, National Eye Institute, National Institute of Health
- 2008 - 2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, National Institute of Health
Education
- 2003 - 2008: University College London, UK, PhD - Mutational and Functional Analyses of Bardet-Biedl syndrome
- 2003: University of Bath, UK, Master of Biochemistry (MBiochem) (II-I)
Selected publications by Helen May-Simera
Schneider S, De Cegli R, Nagarajan J, Kretschmer V, Matthiessen PA, Intartaglia D, Hotaling N, Ueffing M, Boldt K, Conte I and May-Simera HL (2021) Loss of ciliary gene Bbs8 results in physiological defects in the retinal pigment epithelium. Front Cell Dev Biol, 9:607121 Link
Patnaik SR, Kretschmer V, Brücker L, Schneider S, Volz AK, Oancea-Castillo LDR and May-Simera HL (2019) Bardet-Biedl Syndrome proteins regulate cilia disassembly during tissue maturation. Cell Mol Life Sci, 76:757-775 Link
May-Simera HL, Wan Q, Jha BS, Hartford J, Khristov V, Dejene R, Chang J, Patnaik S, Lu Q, Banerjee P, Silver J, Insinna-Kettenhofen C, Patel D, Lotfi M, Malicdan M, Hotaling N, Maminishkis A, Sridharan R, Brooks B, Miyagishima K, Gunay-Aygun M, Pal R, Westlake C, Miller S, Sharma R and Bharti K (2018) Primary cilium mediated retinal pigment epithelium maturation is retarded in ciliopathy patient cells. Cell Reports, 2;22:189-205 Link
May-Simera HL, Nagel-Wolfrum K and Wolfrum U (2017) Cilia - the sensory antennae in the eye. Prog Retin Eye Res, 60:144-180 Link