Dr Vasso Makrantoni

Group Members

Zirong Zeng, PhD student

Kingsley Warne, PhD student

Lia Loyd, MScR student

Freya Oliphant, MScR student

Research Overview

Fungi kill over 2 million people each year worldwide, six times more than malaria or influenza, and are deadlier than most bacterial infections. Candida albicans is the most common human fungal pathogen responsible for superficial and invasive infections with devastating consequences for immunocompromised individuals. The World Health Organisation recently commissioned the first ‘fungal priority pathogens’ list, citing Candida albicans in the ‘critical’ group. The limited repertoire of antifungal drugs available and an increase in resistance seen in clinics poses an urgent need to understand the mechanisms contributing to Candida’s virulence and drug resistance. Candida are known to change their shape from ‘yeast’ to the more virulent ‘hyphae’ form, survive extreme conditions within the host, use different nutrition sources and exploit genome instability to adapt and become resistant to anti-fungal drugs. Our main goal is to understand Candida resistance mechanisms driven by genomic plasticity and metabolic flexibility.

To answer this, we take an interdisciplinary approach using cell biology, genetics, and omics-based approaches combined with biochemistry and structure-function analysis.  To unravel the intricate host-pathogen interplay we explore animal models of virulence (C. elegans) and human macrophages and 3D gut/intestinal organoids. Our most recent studies focus on the role of the Ubiquitin-proteasome-system in rewiring Candida’s metabolism during infection and antifungal drug resistance.

Selected publications

1. Borek WE, Vincenten N, Duro E, Makrantoni V, Spanos C, Sarangapani KK, Alves FL, Kelly DA, Asbury CL, Rappsilber J, Marston AL (2021). The proteomic landscape of centromeric chromatin reveals an essential role for the Ctf19CCAN complex in meiotic kinetochore assembly.  Curr Biol; 31, 283-296.
2. Kuhl LM., Makrantoni V., Recknagel S., Vaze AN., Marston AL and Vader G. (2020). A dCas9/CRISPR-based targeting system identifies a central role for Ctf19 in kinetochore-derived suppression of meiotic recombination. Genetics; 216, 395-408
3. Hsieh YYP., Makrantoni V., Robertson D., Marston AL., Murray AW. (2020). Evolutionary repair: changes in multiple functional modules allow meiotic cohesion to support mitosis. PLoS Biol; Mar 10;18:e3000635.
4. Makrantoni V and MarstonAL. (2018). Cohesin and chromosome segregation. Curr. Biol; 28, R688-R693. 
5. Blyth J., Makrantoni V., Barton R., Spanos C., Rappsilber J., MarstonAL. (2018). A functional genomics screen identifies genes required for fission yeast meiosis. Genetics; 208, 589-603.
6. Hinshaw S*., Makrantoni V*., Harrison SC., Marston AL. (2017). The Kinetochore Receptor for the Cohesin loading complex. Cell(* equal contribution); 171, 72-84.
7. Makrantoni V., Ciesiolka A., Lawless C., Fernius J., Marston AL., Lydall D., Stark MJR. (2017). A functional link between Bir1 and the S. cerevisiae Ctf19 kinetochore complex revealed through Quantitative Fitness Analysis. G3 (Bethesda); 7, 3203-3215.
8. Hinshaw S., Makrantoni V., Kerr A., Marston AL., Harrison SC. (2015). Structural evidence for Scc4-dependent localization of cohesin. eLife; doi: 10.7554/eLife.06057
9. Makrantoni V., Corbishley SJ., Rachidi N., Morrice NA., Robinson DA., Stark MJ. (2014).  Phosphorylation of Sli15 by Ipl1 is important for proper CPC localization and chromosome stability in S. cerevisiae. PLoS ONE; 9(2): e89399. 

Full publication list on Google scholar

Biographical Profile

Dr Vasso Makrantoni studied Biology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and moved to St Andrews University in Scotland for her PhD studies with focus on stress response signalling in the baker yeast, S. cerevisiae. Following completion of her PhD, she undertook postdoctoral research, first at the Welcome Centre for Gene Regulation & Expression, Dundee in the laboratory of Prof Mike Stark, and then at the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell Biology in Edinburgh in the laboratory of Prof Adele Marston with a long-standing focus in cell cycle regulation and genome stability. Her most seminal discoveries are on elucidating the mechanism of loading multiprotein complexes that keep sister chromatids together and prevent chromosomal abnormalities during cell division. In 2021, Vasso accepted a Principal Investigator/ Tenure-Track Lecturer position in CMVM to start her own lab at Infection Medicine, Chancellor’s building. Vasso also holds a joint appointment at the Zhejiang University - University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJU-UoE), where she is the Course Organiser for ‘Infection and Immunity 3’. In 2022 she relocated her group to CIR-IRR and is focusing on how pathogenic fungi survive under stress during host infection and antifungal drug treatment.

Other Responsibilities

Involved in developing and delivering undergraduate teaching at the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE). 

Collaborators

Prof Jeyaprakash Arulanandam, Institute of Cell Biology, Edinburgh

Dr Arno Alpi, Institute of Cell Biology, Edinburgh

Prof Alessia Buscaino, University of Kent

Dr Maria Doitsidou, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh

Prof Kevin Hardwick, Institute of Cell Biology, Edinburgh

Prof Carol Munro, Institute of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen

Prof Peter Swain, Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Edinburgh

Alumni

Qing Liu, MScR student.

Alexandra Tonby-Strandborg, Biochemical Society - funded summer student. 

Julia Nerwinska, Internship student Amsterdam University, The Netherlands. Obtained a distinction. 

Aimee Finlayson, Honours student. Obtained a First-Class Honours Degree. Now a bacteriology technician at Aviagen.

Serge Rampon, Internship student from University of Nice, France. Obtained a distinction. Now a scientist at Eurofins. 

Yunkuan Yang, MScR student. Now a PhD student in Wang lab, Zhejiang University

Yuheng Wang, ZJE summer student. Now a PhD student at UC Berkeley.

Shuyu Qin, MScR student. Now a PhD student in Bonfini lab, Zhejiang University

Zirong Zeng, MScR student. Awarded an EDCS scholarship now a PhD student in Makrantoni lab

Rui Wang, MScR student. Obtained distinction. Now a PhD student at the University of Zurich

Zenith Raval, MScR student. Now a scientist in Cambridge

Brenda Kageni Mionki, Honours student. Obtained a First-Class Honours Degree. Now a Welcome Trust PhD student at John Innes Centre, Norwich.

Funders

Welcome ISSF

Royal Society

Carnegie Trust

EASTBIO