Dr Peter Thorpe
Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry
Deputy Dean for Research - Impact
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London
Research
cell division, chromosome segregation, kinetochore, cell cycle
Interests
We perform research to understand the regulation of cell division. Cell division is the process that creates new cells to replace aged or damaged tissues in our body, however, uncontrolled cell division is the defining characteristic of cancer. We aim to determine how cell division is regulated to allow us to control this process. The ultimate aim is to be able to regulate cell division as a treatment for cancer and to promote cell division of stem cells for regenerative medicine.A central hypothesis of our work is that the position of proteins within the cell controls cell division. We place normal proteins in different locations within the cell, next to new partner proteins, and test the effect upon cell division. Some of the resulting changes promote cell division, while others block it. We then use this knowledge to understand both how the normal process of cell division is controlled and how it may be manipulated, for example in cancer therapy.
For more information see our lab website www.thorpelab.org
Publications
Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology2024
Peripolli S, Meneguello L, Perrod C, Singh T, Patel H, Rahman ST, Kiso K, Thorpe P, Calvanese V, Bertoli C and de Bruin RAM (2024). Oncogenic c-Myc induces replication stress by increasing cohesins chromatin occupancy in a CTCF-dependent manner. Nature Communications, Springer Nature vol. 15 (1) 21-02-2024
2023
Mishra PK, Au W-C, Castineira PG, Ali N, Stanton J, Boeckmann L, Takahashi Y, Costanzo M, Boone C, Bloom KS, Thorpe PH and Basrai MA (2023). Misregulation of cell cycle-dependent methylation of budding yeast CENP-A contributes to chromosomal instability. Molecular Biology of the Cell, American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) vol. 34 (10) 12-07-2023
Mishra PK, Ali N, Au W, Boeckmann L, Takahashi Y, Castineira P, Bloom K, Thorpe P and Basrai M (2023). Constitutive methylation of budding yeast CENP-A contributes to chromosomal instability. 01-01-2023
2022
Nitika , Zheng B, Ruan L, Kline JT, Omkar S, Sikora J, Texeira Torres M, Wang Y, Takakuwa JE, Huguet R, Klemm C, Segarra VA, Winters MJ, Pryciak PM, Thorpe PH, Tatebayashi K, Li R, Fornelli L and Truman AW (2022). Comprehensive characterization of the Hsp70 interactome reveals novel client proteins and interactions mediated by posttranslational modifications. PLoS Biology, Public Library of Science vol. 20 (10), e3001839-e3001839. 21-10-2022
Klemm C, Howell RSM and Thorpe PH (2022). ScreenGarden: a shinyR application for fast and easy analysis of plate-based high-throughput screens. BMC Bioinformatics, Springer Nature vol. 23 (1) 05-02-2022
2021
Klemm C, Wood H, Thomas GH, Ólafsson G, Torres MT and Thorpe PH (2021). Forced association of SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the yeast proteome perturb vesicle trafficking. Microbial Cell, Shared Science Publishers OG vol. 8 (12) 06-12-2021
Mishra PK, Wood H, Stanton J, Au W-C, Eisenstatt JR, Boeckmann L, Sclafani RA, Weinreich M, Bloom KS, Thorpe PH and Basrai MA (2021). Cdc7-mediated phosphorylation of Cse4 regulates high-fidelity chromosome segregation in budding yeast. Molecular Biology of the Cell, American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) vol. 32 (21) 25-08-2021
2020
Klemm C, Thorpe PH and Ólafsson G (2020). Cell-cycle phospho-regulation of the kinetochore. Current Genetics, Springer Nature vol. 67 (2), 177-193. 22-11-2020
Howell RSM, Klemm C, Thorpe PH and Csikász-Nagy A (2020). Unifying the mechanism of mitotic exit control in a spatiotemporal logical model. PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 18 (11) 12-11-2020
Herrero E, Stinus S, Bellows E, Berry LK, Wood H and Thorpe PH (2020). Asymmetric Transcription Factor Partitioning During Yeast Cell Division Requires the FACT Chromatin Remodeler and Cell Cycle Progression. Genetics vol. 216 (3), 701-716. 01-11-2020
Ólafsson G and Thorpe PH (2020). Polo kinase recruitment via the constitutive centromere-associated network at the kinetochore elevates centromeric RNA. PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 16 (8) 18-08-2020
Berry LK, Thomas GH and Thorpe PH (2020). CATS: Cas9-assisted tag switching. A high-throughput method for exchanging genomic peptide tags in yeast. BMC Genomics, BioMed Central vol. 21 (1) 10-03-2020
Garcia E, Guo W, Kumar S, Görlitz F, Sparks H, Alexandrov Y, Munro I, Kelly DJ, Warren S, Chennell G, Sardini A, Carling D, Thorpe P, Dunsby C and French PMW (2020). FLIM, FRET and high content analysis. SPIE BiOS. 02-03-2020
2019
Howell RSM, Csikász-Nagy A and Thorpe PH (2019). Synthetic Physical Interactions with the Yeast Centrosome. G3 (Bethesda) vol. 9 (7), 2183-2194. 09-07-2019
Howell RSM, Csikász-Nagy A and Thorpe PH (2019). Synthetic Physical Interactions with the Yeast Centrosome. G3 (Bethesda) vol. 9 (7), 2183-2194. 01-07-2019
Mishra PK, Olafsson G, Boeckmann L, Westlake TJ, Jowhar ZM, Dittman LE, Baker RE, D'Amours D, Thorpe PH and Basrai MA (2019). Cell cycle dependent association of polo kinase Cdc5 with CENP-A contributes to faithful chromosome segregation in budding yeast. Mol Biol Cell, mbcE18090584-mbcE18090584. 06-02-2019
Guo W, Kumar S, Görlitz F, Garcia E, Alexandrov Y, Munro I, Kelly DJ, Warren S, Thorpe P, Dunsby C and French P (2019). Automated Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging High-Content Analysis of Förster Resonance Energy Transfer between Endogenously Labeled Kinetochore Proteins in Live Budding Yeast Cells. SLAS Technol vol. 24 (3), 308-320. 10-01-2019
2017
Ólafsson G and Thorpe PH (2017). Rewiring the Budding Yeast Proteome using Synthetic Physical Interactions. Genome Instability 599-612. 17-10-2017
2016
Ledesma-Fernández E, Thorpe PH and de Bruin RAM (2016). Bringing Functional Genomics into Focus. Cell Systems, Elsevier BV vol. 3 (3), 214-216. 01-09-2016
Olafsson G and Thorpe PH (2016). Synthetic Physical Interactions Map Kinetochore-Checkpoint Activation Regions. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS vol. 6 (8), 2531-2542. 01-08-2016
Berry LK, Ólafsson G, Ledesma-Fernández E and Thorpe PH (2016). Synthetic protein interactions reveal a functional map of the cell. eLife, eLife vol. 5 21-04-2016
Herrero E and Thorpe PH (2016). Synergistic Control of Kinetochore Protein Levels by Psh1 and Ubr2. PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 12 (2) 18-02-2016
2015
Ólafsson G and Thorpe PH (2015). Synthetic physical interactions map kinetochore regulators and regions sensitive to constitutive Cdc14 localization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol. 112 (33), 10413-10418. 03-08-2015
Ledesma-Fernández E and Thorpe PH (2015). Fluorescent foci quantitation for high-throughput analysis. Journal of Biological Methods, Journal of Biological Methods vol. 2 (2) 19-07-2015
2012
Thorpe PH and Rothstein R (2012). Visualizing global effects of the DNA damage response. Nature Cell Biology, Springer Nature vol. 14 (9), 900-901. 01-09-2012
Thorpe PH, Dittmar JC and Rothstein R (2012). ScreenTroll: a searchable database to compare genome-wide yeast screens. Database, Oxford University Press (OUP) vol. 2012 01-01-2012
2011
Thorpe PH, Alvaro D, Lisby M and Rothstein R (2011). Bringing Rad52 foci into focus. Journal of Cell Biology, Rockefeller University Press vol. 194 (5), 665-667. 05-09-2011
2009
Thorpe PH, Bruno J and Rothstein R (2009). Kinetochore asymmetry defines a single yeast lineage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol. 106 (16), 6673-6678. 21-04-2009
2008
Thorpe PH, Bruno J and Rothstein R (2008). Modeling Stem Cell Asymmetry in Yeast. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory vol. 73, 81-88. 01-01-2008
2007
Thorpe PH, González-Barrera S and Rothstein R (2007). More is not always better: the genetic constraints of polyploidy. Trends in Genetics, Elsevier vol. 23 (6), 263-266. 05-04-2007
2006
Thorpe PH, Marrero VA, Savitzky MH, Sunjevaric I, Freeman TC and Rothstein R (2006). Cells Expressing Murine RAD52 Splice Variants Favor Sister Chromatid Repair. Molecular and Cellular Biology, Taylor & Francis vol. 26 (10), 3752-3763. 01-05-2006
Cagney G, Alvaro D, Reid RJ, Thorpe PH, Rothstein R and Krogan NJ (2006). Functional genomics of the yeast DNA-damage response. Genome Biology, Springer Nature vol. 7 (9) 01-01-2006
2004
Simpson A, King J, Thorpe P, McLachlan G and Sallenave J-M (2004). Towards Gene Therapy for Inflammatory and Infective Pulmonary Diseases. Current Genomics, Bentham Science Publishers vol. 5 (4), 365-383. 01-05-2004
2002
Thorpe P, Stevenson BJ and Porteous DJ (2002). Optimising gene repair strategies in cell culture. Gene Therapy, Springer Nature vol. 9 (11), 700-702. 22-05-2002
Thorpe PH, Stevenson BJ and Porteous DJ (2002). Functional correction of episomal mutations withshort DNA fragments and RNA–DNA oligonucleotides. The Journal of Gene Medicine, Wiley vol. 4 (2), 195-204. 01-03-2002
1999
Thorpe PH and Porteous DJ (1999). Rapid Quantitation of Gene Therapy Specific CFTR Expression Using the Amplification Refractory Mutation System. BioTechniques, Future Science Group vol. 27 (1), 122-127. 01-07-1999
1997
Thorpe PH, Ternent D and Murray NE (1997). The specificity of StySKI, a type I restriction enzyme, implies a structure with rotational symmetry. Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford University Press (OUP) vol. 25 (9), 1694-1700. 01-05-1997
Dryden DTF, Cooper LP, Thorpe PH and Byron O (1997). The in Vitro Assembly of the EcoKI Type I DNA Restriction/Modification Enzyme and Its in Vivo Implications †. Biochemistry, American Chemical Society (ACS) vol. 36 (5), 1065-1076. 01-02-1997
Grants
Grants of specific relevance to the Centre for Molecular Cell BiologyA confocal microscope for multidisciplinary dynamic studies of complex biological systemsConrad Mullineaux, Caroline Brennan, Alexandre De Mendoza Soler, Viji Draviam Sastry, Maurice Elphick, Christoph Engl, Maria Isabel Palacios De Castro, Matteo Palma, Marina Resmini, Alexander Ruban, Peter Thorpe, Angelika Stollewerk, Jose Martin Duran, Paulo Baptista Ribeiro, Susana Alves Godinho, Richard Grose, Stephanie Kermorgant, Peter McCormick and Tyson Sharp
£390,834 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-08-2022 - 31-07-2023)