Dr Alex Whitworth
Senior Lecturer
Department of Biomedical Science
The University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom
Room: D19 Firth Court
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 1084
email : a.whitworth@sheffield.ac.uk
Career history
- 2011-present: Senior Lecturer, Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield.
- 2005-2010: Lecturer, Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield.
- 2001-2005: Post-doctoral research fellow, Genome Sciences, University of Washington. advisor: Dr Leo Pallanck.
- 1997-2001: PhD, Genetics, University of Cambridge. advisor: Dr Steven Russell.
- 1993-1997: BSc, Biochemistry, Imperial College London.
Research interests
We are using the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a genetic model to dissect the pathologic mechanisms of a number of neurodegenerative disease.
Read more (link to the Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics)
Activities and distinctions
- Editorial Board Member - PLoS ONE and Scientific Reports.
- EMBO practical course teacher (2007, 2010)
- Teacher for Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Developmental Neurobiology Course 2010.
- Reviewer for: Reviewer for: Science, Nature Neuroscience, Molecular Cell, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Current Biology and others.
- Organiser and session chair, Neurofly 2010
- Invited Speaker: IRB Barcelona BioMed Conference, Mitochondrial Autophagy
- Invited speaker - DZNE and MPI Conference on Ageing and Neurodegeneration 2011
Current funding
Recent publications
Burchell VS, Nelson DE, Sanchez-Martinez A, Delgado-Camprubi M, Ivatt RM, Pogson JH, Randle SJ, Wray S, Lewis PA, Houlden H, Abramov AY, Hardy J, Wood NW, Whitworth AJ, Laman H, Plun-Favreau H.
The Parkinson's disease-linked proteins Fbxo7 and Parkin interact to mediate mitophagy.
Nat Neurosci. 2013 Aug 11. doi: 10.1038/nn.3489. [Epub ahead of print]
Sanchez-Martinez A, Calleja M, Peralta S, Matsushima Y, Hernandez-Sierra R, Whitworth AJ, Kaguni LS, Garesse R.
Modeling pathogenic mutations of human twinkle in Drosophila suggests an apoptosis role in response to mitochondrial defects.
PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43954.
Woodroof HI, Pogson JH, Begley M, Cantley LC, Deak M, Campbell DG, van Aalten DM, Whitworth AJ, Alessi DR, Muqit MM.
Discovery of catalytically active orthologues of the Parkinson's disease kinase PINK1: analysis of substrate specificity and impact of mutations.
Open Biol. 2011 Nov;1(3):110012.
Pogson JH, Ivatt RM, Whitworth AJ.
Molecular mechanisms of PINK1-related neurodegeneration.
Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2011 11:283-90. Review.
Whitworth AJ.
Drosophila models of Parkinson's disease.
Adv Genet. 2011;73:1-50. Review.
Deas E, Plun-Favreau H, Gandhi S, Desmond H, Kjaer S, Loh SH, Renton AE, Harvey RJ, Whitworth AJ, Martins LM, Abramov AY, Wood NW.
PINK1 cleavage at position A103 by the mitochondrial protease PARL.
Hum Mol Genet. 2010 [Epub ahead of print]
Ziviani E, Whitworth AJ.
How could Parkin-mediated ubiquitination of mitofusin promote mitophagy?
Autophagy. 2010 Jul 29;6(5). PDF download.
Ziviani E, Tao RN, Whitworth AJ.
Drosophila parkin requires PINK1 for mitochondrial translocation and ubiquitinates mitofusin.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Mar 16;107(11):5018-23.
Kieper N, Holmström KM, Ciceri D, Fiesel FC, Wolburg H, Ziviani E, Whitworth AJ, Martins LM, Kahle PJ, Krüger R.
Modulation of mitochondrial function and morphology by interaction of Omi/HtrA2 with the mitochondrial fusion factor OPA1.
Exp Cell Res. 2010 Apr 15;316(7):1213-24.
L Tain, H Mortiboys, R Tao, E Ziviani, O Bandmann, A Whitworth.
Rapamycin activation of 4E-BP prevents parkinsonian dopaminergic neuron loss.
Nat Neurosci. 2009 Sep;12(9):1129-35. Epub 2009 Aug 16.
Tain LS, Chowdhury RB, Tao RN, Plun-Favreau H, Moisoi N, Martins LM, Downward J, Whitworth AJ, Tapon N.
Drosophila HtrA2 is dispensable for apoptosis but acts downstream of PINK1 independently from Parkin.
Cell Death Differ. 2009;16(8):1118-25.