Our arenaviruses experts
Group members: Dr Toshana Foster (Lab lead), Dr Robert Stott-Marshall (Postdoctoral Associate), Finley Old (BBSRC DTP Postgraduate student)
Dr Toshana Foster joined the University of Nottingham as a Nottingham Research Fellow in April 2018. Toshana received her Wellcome Trust PhD from the University of Leeds in 2011, where she biochemically and structurally characterized hepatitis C virus proteins, specifically solving one of the first solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy structures of the monomeric form of the viroporin p7 for the rational design of virus inhibitors (Foster et al. 2014, Hepatology).
Her postdoctoral research with Prof Stuart Neil at King’s College London, initially investigated the various aspects of HIV-1 cell biology particularly working collaboratively to study how Vpu exploits the endosomal trafficking machinery to counteract the restriction factor, tetherin and how the SCFβTRCP interaction motifs within Vpu may contribute to antagonism of tetherin. Alongside this research, she led a study on the role of IFITM-mediated antiviral activity against HIV-1. Key findings and successes from this work have influenced her current avenue of research that focuses on the molecular and cellular biology of arenaviruses and structural characterisation of host-protein interactions.
Current and previous funding: University of Nottingham Research Fellowship, Wellcome Seed Award in Science, Royal Society Research Grant, University of Nottingham Internal GCRF grant, Interdisciplinary Centre for Analytical Science (UNICAS) Inter-disciplinary Sandpit Programme Funding, MRC New Investigator Research Grant (NIRG).
Dr Robert Stott-Marshall attained his PhD on ‘The role of autophagy in Semliki Forest virus infection’ from Leeds Beckett University following on from an MSc degree that focused on the ‘Molecular and Cellular Biology of Parasites and Disease Vectors’ at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
He then moved on to University of California Davis (UCD) as a Postdoctoral Scholar where he studied the role of flavivirus viral RNA trafficking in host cell nuclei, using live-cell microscopy techniques in tandem with viral RNA epitope tagging to track viral RNA during infection.
Robert joined the group in December 2019 on a Wellcome Trust ‘Seed Award in Science’ and is now working on the MRC NIRG, with a focus on host-restriction of arenavirus infection.
Finley Old, a BBSRC DTP Postgraduate student, joined the group in January 2022. Fin achieved his undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Nottingham.
For his masters research project, Finley worked with Professor Jonathan Ball and Dr Patrick McClure on a project entitled: Generation of Bovine Antibody Repertoires Using Next-Generation Sequencing Techniques and 5’ RACE to Identify Areas of High Conservation in Bovine Antibody Heavy Chain Variable Region for Improved Forward Primer Design. Finley’s project focusses on unravelling the arenavirus interactome.