Rosa Laura Lopez Marques

Short presentation

As a chemist, I have always being curious about how cells work as miniature chemical reactors. During my PhD on proton-pumps, I realized how much influence the processes that occur within biological membranes have on membrane dynamics. Therefore, it felt logical to move as a postdoctoral fellow to the study of P4-ATPases, which contribute to membrane lipid distribution, thus affecting membrane properties and vesicle formation. Since I established this research line, I have collected and developed a whole toolbox to study the mechanism, regulation and physiological role of these transporters with a focus in plants. My competences include Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Plant Biology, Advanced Microscopy and Plant Cell Biology.

Primary fields of research

The interest of the group is to understand the mechanisms underlying lipid translocation across biological membranes and vesicle formation along the secretory pathway. Our recent data suggests that these two processes are connected by the action of a family of protein pumps known as P4-ATPases (also called flippases).

P4-ATPases belong to a family of cation-transporting proteins, the P-type ATPases, involved in relevant physiological functions, such as the generation of electrochemical gradients across membranes or cell detoxification.

We currently focus on three parallel research lines: 1) How do P4-ATPases translocate lipids across membranes? 2) How is lipid translocation regulated in living cells? 3) What is the physiological relevance of plant P4-ATPases?

To unravel these questions we use a broad range of techniques based on homologous and heterologous expression systems: transient expression in tobacco epidermal cells, bioimaging, molecular cloning, mutant generation and characterization, analysis of protein-protein interactions, membrane isolation and protein purification, activity assays, functional complementation studies, plant phenotypical analysis.

CV

Researcher identifier(s): orcid.org/0000-0002-5663-7903; ResearcherID: F-8536-2014

• EDUCATION

June 2004          PhD in Chemistry, University of Seville (Spain). Award to the best PhD thesis in 2004.

June 1999          Major in Chemistry, University of Seville (Spain). Award to outstanding academic   performance.  

• CURRENT AND PREVIOUS POSITIONS

Since 2009      Associate Professor, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen. From 2010, Junior Group Leader, Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease-PUMPKIN, Danish National Research Foundation. From 2012, tenured staff member and Group Leader. 

2005 – 2009    Post-Doctoral fellow within the EC Marie Curie RTN "Flippases" (2005-2007), and the Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease-PUMPkin (2008-2009), Danish National Research Foundation, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2000-2004      PhD fellow at the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Seville (Spain)

• FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS 

2017                Villum Fonden Project (2.500.000 DKK) for 3 years including a postdoctoral position

2012                Carlsberg Foundation (200,000 DKK) for infrastructure

2010                Partner in a project from Det Fri Forskningsråd|Natur og Univers (792,655DKK)

2010                Brødrene Hartmanns Fond (50,000 DKK)

2010                Direktør Ib Henriksens Fond (50,000 DKK)

2009                Lundbeck Foundation travelling grant (15,000 DKK)

2000 – 2003    SpanishMinistry of Education Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Seville  (Spain)

1999 – 2000    Collaboration grant, Spanish Ministry of Education, and Introduction to Research Grant, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)                   

• SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

2005 – 2017              11 master students, 6 PhD students, 2 post-doctoral fellows, and 2 lab trainees. Currently, I am supervising 2 PhD students and 1 master students. Two of the PhD students became postdoctoral fellows and the other two were recruited by biotechnological companies with an international profile (Novozymes, Chemometec). The oldest PhD progressed to be appointed Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. About half of the master students became PhD students, while the other half moved directly to industry. 

• TEACHING ACTIVITIES  

Since 2009, I yearly contribute with a lecture to the PhD course “Advances in Plant biology” at the University of Copenhagen, and I was an invited speaker at an international PhD summer school on Protein-protein interactions held in Copenhagen in 2013.

            Since 2005, I am regularly involved in teaching in three different courses in the Biology-Biotechnology program at the University of Copenhagen, at the Master and the Bachelor levels. Since 2013 I am also involved in examination.

• ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS 

2012, 2014      co-chair in the Sandbjerg Meeting on Membrane Transport, Sønderborg, Denmark (~80 participants).

January 2012   Organizer of the semi-annual meeting of the PUMPKIN Center of Excellence, Danish National Research Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark (~50 participants).

August 2006    Main organizer of the Annual and Mid-term meeting of the EC Marie Curie RTN "Flippases", Copenhagen (Denmark) (~65 participants).

August 2006    Organizer and coordinator of a two-day practical course within the training activities of the EC Marie Curie RTN Flippases, Copenhagen (Denmark) (~15 participants).

• INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES 

Since 2012      Appointed Member of the Research Committee at my department. The role of this Committee is to advise the Department Head in matters of Scientific Research.

2013-2017      Chair for four differnt PhD defences at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2014               Appointed Member of a Committee in charge of coordinating the development on new plant growth and tissue culture facilities for the new Copenhagen Plant Science Center, Denmark.

2009 – 2011     Appointed Member of a Committee in charge of coordinating the reallocation of personnel and equipment at the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in relation to a full restructuring of the Department.

• MEMBERSHIPS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 

2014 –             Funding Member of the Community of Spanish Scientists in Denmark

2004 –2016      Associated Member of the Spanish Biochemical Society

2005 –2014      Associated Member Marie Curie Fellows Association

• COMMISSIONS OF TRUST

2015-2016    Advisory Board member for the start-up biotechnology company DEMKIP, which focuses on production of pharmacological substances for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

I have been asked to review applications for the National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA), and the Estonian Research Council. About once a year, I am asked to review manuscripts for journals such as Plant Cell, Physiologia plantarum or PLoS One. Since February 2016, I am a remote reviewer for applications to the European research Council.

• MAJOR COLLABORATIONS

Dr. Guillaume Lenoir (INRA, France; Biochemistry of flippases; 1 joint publication), Prof. Jeff Harper (University of Nevada; Plant physiology; 3 joint publications), Prof. Hans-Thordal Christensen (University of Copenhagen; Plant physiology). Prof. Peter Dörman (Bonn University; Plant lipid analysis), Dr. Jonathan Markham (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Plant sphingolipids), Dr. Anne-Claude Gavin (EMBL, Heidelberg; Liposome microarrays), Dr. Peng Qin (Sichuan Agricultural University; rice P4-ATPases).

• OTHER RELEVANT QUALIFICATIONS

In 2009, I completed an intensive course in Laboratory management organized by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). In October 2015, I completed the EMBO Advanced Management course for Female Leaders in Science, to further improve my management skills.