Whitehouse Lab
People
Professor Adrian Whitehouse
Professor of Molecular Virology - Principle Investigator
Adrian obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Sheffield in 1991 and D.Phil in Molecular Virology from the University of Oxford in 1994. Following postdoctoral work at the Molecular Medicine Unit, St James’s Hospital in Leeds, he was awarded a Medical Research Council Non-clinical Fellowship in 1998, and joined the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Leeds, as a Lecturer in 2002, and subsequently appointed to Reader in 2005, and Professor of Molecular Virology in 2010.
+44(0)113 343 7096
Dr Timothy Mottram
Senior Academic Research Fellow
Timothy obtained a 1st Class Honours BSc in Virology from the University of Glasgow in 2014, followed by a PhD in Molecular virology in 2018. He joined the Whitehouse Lab for his first postdoc in 2018, followed by two subsequent postdoctoral renewals. He’s interested in molecular mechanisms behind viral replication and viral-host interactions. He has extensive research experience in RNA biology, RNA modifications and virology.
Dr Katherine Harper
Academic Research Fellow
Katie’s PhD focused on the dysregulation of ncRNA regulatory networks during KSHV lytic replication and she is currently working on KSHV-driven formation of biomolecular condensates. This research, in collaboration with Ellie, is focusing on understanding viral dysregulation of RNA processing and its contribution to tumorigenesis.
Dr Elena Harrington
Academic Research Fellow
Ellie is a newly appointed postdoc in the Whitehouse lab after also completing her PhD at Leeds. The basis of her PhD was researching specialised ribosomes but her postdoc will focus on virally-induced condensates in collaboration with Katie, and other exciting projects involving post-translational modifications.
Dr Christopher Trevelyan
Summerhayes Research Fellow
Frederick Weaver
PhD Student
Freddy is a final year PhD student in the Whitehouse Lab. His project is developing novel inhibitors of the co-chaperone HOP in the context of KSHV. As the lab’s chemist, he focuses on modelling HOP’s protein-protein interaction and utilising high throughput screening approaches to develop inhibitors of its binding regions to HSP70 & HSP90. Alongside this, he also employs peptides as tool compounds to garner further understanding of the effects of inhibition of HOP on KSHV’s lytic replication cycle.
Sarah Menezes
Research Assistant
Sarah currently works as a research assistant, however she will be starting her PhD in the Whitehouse lab in October. She’s interested in virus-host interactions, particularly RNA modifications. Her research focuses on the role of m6A within KSHV infection, such as evaluating the role of a novel family of m6A reader proteins in KSHV replication and determining whether m6A can be targeted as a novel antiviral strategy.
Other members of the research group include:
Lorraine Matandirotya, PhD Student: bsltm@leeds.ac.uk
Katie Allott, Research Assistant: K.L.Allott@leeds.ac.uk
Helena Roy-Boada. PhD Student, bshjrb@leeds.ac.uk