2004 ASBMB Fellowship: Maria Lim

Maria Lim Maria completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Monash University in 1996, with Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as one of her majors. She pursued her keen interest in this discipline by undertaking Honours in the laboratory of Professor Phillip Nagley at Monash in 1997 to investigate mitochondrial involvement in mammalian ageing. This entailed a PCR-based analysis of DNA samples from normal individuals of various age cohorts, which showed that accumulation of certain point mutations and deletions within the mitochondrial genome correlated with the physiological decline of tissues associated with the ageing process. Having acquired first class Honours and awarded a Monash Graduate scholarship, Maria embarked on a PhD from 1998 until 2002, to study the role of mitochondria in apoptosis. In particular, the study focussed on the relationship between two mitochondrial events implicated in apoptosis, namely the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition (MPT) and the release of cytochrome c. With the use of cell biological techniques including confocal microscopy applied to a range of cultured cells, Maria demonstrated that induction of MPT and mitochondrial swelling do not automatically lead to cytochrome c release. This suggested that other mechanisms of outer membrane permeabilisation govern cytochrome c efflux from mitochondria during apoptosis in intact cells (in contrast to observations on isolated mitochondria where MPT-based swelling causes outer membrane rupture). Maria has obtained four publications from her Honours and PhD degrees.

Since 2003, Maria has been working as a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Nagley laboratory to characterise the role of mitochondria in neuronal apoptosis as part of the NHMRC program on Brain Injury and Repair. Her work thus far involves examining the timing of release of key death-signalling proteins from mitochondria during neuronal stress and the effect of caspase inhibition on their release kinetics. Her data suggest a differential release of these proteins from mitochondria in neurones (relative to other cultured cell types). Further, depending on the apoptotic stimulus applied, neuronal cells may have a differential engagement of caspases in the apoptotic signalling pathway.

This year Maria was awarded a fellowship by the International Brain Research Organisation to attend the School of Neuroscience in Hong Kong for two weeks in April. This enabled her to learn techniques in molecular biology that she can apply to her current research work, and present her data at the organised symposium. Maria intends to use her ASBMB fellowship to attend the Gordon conference on Cell Death in Montana, USA in August/September this year where she will present her recent studies on neuronal apoptosis. She also plans to visit laboratories in North America during her overseas trip.

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This page last modified: October 10, 2008.