Jan Karlseder received his Ph.D. from the Institute for Molecular Biology in Austria and completed postdocs at both the Center for Applied Genetics (Austria) and Rockefeller University. He is currently a Professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and holder of The Donald and Darlene Shiley Chair.

I did my PhD at the Institut Curie, Paris, where I studied telomere replication with Arturo Londono. I then moved to Brussels, Belgium, and worked on TERRA and telomere chromatin in the lab of Anabelle Decottignies. After a few of years enjoying waffles, sour ale and the finest chocolate, I moved to sunny California and joined the Karlseder lab in July 2012. I am currently studying how dysfunctional telomeres are repaired over the cell cycle.

I am originally from Barcelona, and it’s where I carried out my undergraduate studies in Biology at the Universitat de Barcelona. I later moved to Sweden where I did my PhD at Karolinska Institutet in the lab of Maria Falkenberg, about mitochondrial DNA replication. We identified Mitochondrial RNA polymerase as the long sought-after lagging-strand primase in mammalian mitochondria, and we were able to reconstitute DNA replication in vitro from the well-defined origin of replication OriL, using purified human proteins. I joined the Karlseder lab in 2014 where I am studying the link between DNA replication stress and alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), a mechanism used by certain types of tumors to maintain telomere length.

Teresa obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology at the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, where she studied the regulatory mechanisms that ensure efficient chromosome segregation in Xenopus, such as centromeric identity maintenance, cohesion and spindle assembly. She joined the Karlseder laboratory in February 2011, where she has been investigating the dynamic regulation of telomeric chromatin in stem cells.

Originally, I come from Germany, where I did my undergraduate studies and PhD at the University of Wuerzburg. On the one hand, my main focus of research was the characterization of new inducible shRNA mouse models targeting the autophagy-related gene Atg5 or Atg7 with regard to functionality and toxicity. On the other hand, I investigated the effect of arginine deprivation via rhArgI-PEG5000 in arginine auxotrophic pancreatic cancer cell lines. Alterations in response to arginine deprivation are potential genetic vulnerabilities that can be used as targeted therapy. In November 2020, I moved to San Diego and joined the Karlseder lab.

I’m originally from Italy where I got my Master Degree in Biotechnology, then I moved to Spain where I obtained my PhD at the University of Oviedo; during my PhD I studied the molecular mechanisms of tumor formation of a rare hereditary head and neck tumor. I moved to California in 2015 where I joined the Karlseder lab, here my project focuses in understanding the function of a telomere protein in another compartment of the cell: the mitochondria. In my free time I enjoy going to the beach, travel, painting with watercolor and making pizza.

I am from Spain and did my PhD in the laboratory of Aga Gambus at the University of Birmingham (UK), where I used the cell-free system “Xenopus laevis egg extracts” to study the mechanisms of replisome disassembly during DNA replication termination as well as in the response to replication stress. After completing my PhD and a short Post-Doc in the Gambus lab, I decided to join the Karlseder lab to study replication mechanisms required for telomere maintenance in human cells.

I completed my undergraduate studies in Biotechnology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Then, I pursued a Ph.D. degree in Cancer Biology at the University of Zurich in the group of Prof. Alessandro Sartori. My thesis explored the role of homologous recombination factors in response to replication stress, focusing on mechanisms governing replication fork protection. I joined the Karlseder laboratory as a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow in November 2020, intending to investigate the response to replication stress at telomeric repeats and its consequence for telomere function and genome integrity.

Following my bachelor’s and master’s studies in Molecular Biotechnology at Heidelberg University, Germany, I did my PhD in Hans Hombauer’s lab at the German Cancer Research Center. During my PhD I worked on different aspects of DNA replication fidelity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in particular, how NTP and dNTP pool alterations affect DNA replication fidelity. In March 2019, I joined the Karlseder lab. I am interested in how cells escape from replicative crisis and activate telomere maintenance mechanisms.

My research trajectory has been guided by a longstanding interest in studying the connections between aging and cancer. In particular, I have focused on deciphering the mechanism(s) that regulate a cell’s ability to escape critical barriers to tumor development: replicative senescence and crisis. My doctoral work at the Pasteur Institute, France, provided me with extensive knowledge of the relationship between senescence and tumorigenesis and resulted in one of the earliest studies describing a mechanism of senescence escape. I joined the Karlseder lab in January 2016 to capitalize on their research expertise and the training opportunities provided by the Salk and neighboring research centers. I proposed to decipher the mechanism of cell death activated during replicative crisis, a central question that has been ignored among scientists in the telomere field. I was soon able to discover an unrecognized function for autophagy in the clearance of cells in crisis. I identified a novel autophagy related-pathway linking telomeres to cell death. My findings established autophagy as an integral component of the tumorigenesis barrier imposed by crisis and suggested that loss of autophagy function is required for cancer initiation. I am currently studying the link between telomere and innate immunity with a particular focus on cytosolic nucleic acid-sensing pathways.

Rob earned his B.Sc. in Pharmacology from University College Dublin with 1st class honors. Continuing with his postgraduate education at the Conway Institute, U.C.D. as part of the Renal Disease Research Group, Rob’s research focused on the development ofin vitro assays and predictive models to detect chemical carcinogenesis in the kidney. This work was carried out as part of the carcinoGENOMICS project. Rob was also particularly interested in the role that the primary cilium plays in chemical carcinogenesis.

Rob joined the Karlseder lab in February of 2012 and is currently interested in developing novel ways to visualize telomere structure.

Juancar first pursued his studies in Chemistry and then in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine. Finally he completed his PhD in June of 2014 in the Laboratory of Renal Physiopathology at Gregorio Maranon University Hospital in Madrid under the supervision of Alberto Lazaro. The aim of his work consisted of demonstrating that cilastatian, a DHP-I renal enzyme competitive inhibitor, was able to prevent from gentamicin-induced acute renal failure without compromising its bactericidal efficiency. Juancar finally joined the Karlseder group in March 2015.

I come from Uruguay where I got my degree in Biochemistry and then moved to Mexico and did a Masters in Biotechnology at the UNAM (Univ. Autonoma de Mexico) studying the trithorax gene tonalli in Drosophila. After that, I took a couple of years off science to take care of my daughters and moved to San Diego. In 2017, I joined the Karlseder Lab as a Research Assistant and am very happy to help and participate in fascinating projects studying telomere biology.

I started with the first class of undergraduates at UCSD in 1964, got hooked on molecular biology in my junior year and have enjoyed doing research ever since. I came to the Salk in 1970 where I learned the basics of tissue culture from Marguerite Vogt and worked with her for 30 years. During that time I helped to develop a working telomerase assay for primary cells and enjoyed reading all the newest telomere papers. So, it seemed like the perfect fit to go to work with Jan Karlseder and to continue with all the exciting telomere research. When I am not involved in solving all the usual lab manager problems you can find me at home in my garden.