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Dr. Joanna Mcgouran
Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Biography

Joanna obtained a 1st class MChem Degree from the University of Oxford. Following this she completed her D.Phil. entitled "Probing sugar-plant-soil signaling" at the University of Oxford with Professor Ben Davis. Joanna then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Benedikt Kessler in the Department of Medicine, where she created novel ubiquitin-based covalent capture probes and developed inhibitor screening assays. She returned to chemistry department at the University of Oxford in 2014 to work with Professor Tom Brown where her research focused on the study of DNA cross-link repair enzymes, developing assays to study their selectivity and for inhibitor screening. In 2016, Joanna moved to Trinity College Dublin to take up the position of Schuler Assistant Professor in Translational Organic Chemistry.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Arbour, C.A. and Fay, E.M. and McGouran, J.F. and Imperiali, B., Deploying solid-phase synthesis to access thymine-containing nucleoside analogs that inhibit DNA repair nuclease SNM1A, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 21, (28), 2023, p5873-5879 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Fay, E.M. and McGouran, J.F., Exploring the binding pockets of the DNA damage repair enzyme SNM1A through nucleobase modification, Results in Chemistry, 5, (100939), 2023 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Fay, E.M. and Newton, A. and Berney, M. and El-Sagheer, A.H. and Brown, T. and McGouran, J.F., Two-Step Validation Approach for Tools To Study the DNA Repair Enzyme SNM1A, ChemBioChem, 24, (13), 2023 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Calvert, S.H. and McGouran, J.F., Rapid capture of small peptide binders, Nature Reviews Chemistry, 7, (8), 2023, p534-535 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Berney, M. and Manoj, M.T. and Fay, E.M. and McGouran, J.F., 5†-Phosphorylation Increases the Efficacy of Nucleoside Inhibitors of the DNA Repair Enzyme SNM1A, ChemMedChem, 17, (5), 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

Berney, M. and Doherty, W. and Jauslin, W.T. and T Manoj, M. and DÃŒrr, E.-M. and McGouran, J.F., Synthesis and evaluation of squaramide and thiosquaramide inhibitors of the DNA repair enzyme SNM1A, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 46, (116369), 2021 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

DÃŒrr, E.-M. and McGouran, J.F., Probing the binding requirements of modified nucleosides with the dna nuclease snm1a, Molecules, 26, (2), 2021 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

McKenna, S.M. and Fay, E.M. and McGouran, J.F., Flipping the Switch: Innovations in Inducible Probes for Protein Profiling, ACS Chemical Biology, 16, (12), 2021, p2719-2730 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Taylor, N.C. and McGouran, J.F., Investigating eosin Y as a photocatalyst for the radical-dependent activity-based probing of deubiquitinating enzymes, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 19, (10), 2021, p2177-2181 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Taylor, N.C. McGouran, J.F., Strategies to Target Specific Components of the Ubiquitin Conjugation/Deconjugation Machinery, Frontiers in Chemistry, 7, (914), 2020, p1-9 Journal Article, 2020 TARA - Full Text

Taylor, N.C. Hessman, G. Kramer, H.B. McGouran, J.F., Probing enzymatic activity - a radical approach, Chemical Sciences, (11), 2020, p2967 - 2972 Journal Article, 2020

Unsworth, A.J., Bombik, I., Pinto-Fernandez, A., McGouran, J.F., Konietzny, R., Zahedi, R.P., Watson, S.P., Kessler, B.M., Pears, C.J., Human Platelet Protein Ubiquitylation and Changes following GPVI Activation, Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 119, (1), 2019, p104-116 Journal Article, 2019

Thomas A.M., Brolih S., McGouran J.F., El-Sagheer A.H., Ptchelkine D., Jones M., McDonald N.Q., McHugh P.J., Brown T., Optimised oligonucleotide substrates to assay XPF-ERCC1 nuclease activity for the discovery of DNA repair inhibitors, Chemical Communications, 55, (78), 2019, p11671 - 11674 Journal Article, 2019 DOI TARA - Full Text

Doherty W., Durr E.-M., Baddock H.T., Lee S.Y., McHugh P.J., Brown T., Senge M.O., Scanlan E.M., McGouran J.F., A hydroxamic-acid-containing nucleoside inhibits DNA repair nuclease SNM1A, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 17, (35), 2019, p8094 - 8105 Journal Article, 2019 DOI TARA - Full Text

Mills, E.L. and Ryan, D.G. and Prag, H.A. and Dikovskaya, D. and Menon, D. and Zaslona, Z. and Jedrychowski, M.P. and Costa, A.S.H. and Higgins, M. and Hams, E. and Szpyt, J. and Runtsch, M.C. and King, M.S. and McGouran, J.F. and Fischer, R. and Kessler, B.M. and McGettrick, A.F. and Hughes, M.M. and Carroll, R.G. and Booty, L.M. and Knatko, E.V. and Meakin, P.J. and Ashford, M.L.J. and Modis, L.K. and Brunori, G. and Sévin, D.C. and Fallon, P.G. and Caldwell, S.T. and Kunji, E.R.S. and Chouchani, E.T. and Frezza, C. and Dinkova-Kostova, A.T. and Hartley, R.C. and Murphy, M.P. and O'Neill, L.A., Itaconate is an anti-inflammatory metabolite that activates Nrf2 via alkylation of KEAP1, Nature, 556, (7699), 2018, p113-117 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Howells A., McGouran J.F., Kessler B.M., Luhn K., Dengue virus stimulation of dendritic cells induces phosphorylation- and proteolysis-dependent signalling, Malaysian Journal of Microbiology, 14, (Specialissue6), 2018, p474 - 482 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Dürr, E.-M., Doherty, W., Lee, S.Y., El-Sagheer, A.H., Shivalingam, A., McHugh, P.J., Brown, T., McGouran, J.F., Squaramide-Based 5"-Phosphate Replacements Bind to the DNA Repair Exonuclease SNM1A, ChemistrySelect, 3, (45), 2018, p12824-12829 Journal Article, 2018 TARA - Full Text

Berney M., McGouran J.F., Methods for detection of cytosine and thymine modifications in DNA, Nature Reviews Chemistry, 2, (11), 2018, p332 - 348 Journal Article, 2018 TARA - Full Text DOI

Doherty W, Adler N, Knox A, Nolan D, McGouran J, Nikalje A.P, Lokwani D, Sarkate A, Evans P, Synthesis and Evaluation of 1,2,3-Triazole-Containing Vinyl and Allyl Sulfones as Anti-Trypanosomal Agents, European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2017, (1), 2017, p175 - 185 Journal Article, 2017 URL DOI TARA - Full Text

Turnbull AP, Ioannidis S, Krajewski WW, Pinto-Fernandez A, Heride C, Martin ACL, Tonkin LM, Townsend EC, Buker SM, Lancia DR, Caravella JA, Toms AV, Charlton TM, Lahdenranta J, Wilker E, Follows BC, Evans NJ, Stead L, Alli C, Zarayskiy VV, Talbot AC, Buckmelter AJ, Wang M, McKinnon CL, Saab F, McGouran JF, Century H, Gersch M, Pittman MS, Marshall CG, Raynham TM, Simcox M, Stewart LMD, McLoughlin SB, Escobedo JA, Bair KW, Dinsmore CJ, Hammonds TR, Kim S, Urbé S, Clague MJ, Kessler BM, Komander D., Molecular basis of USP7 inhibition by selective small-molecule inhibitors., Nature, 550, (7677), 2017, p481-486 Journal Article, 2017 TARA - Full Text DOI

Abdullah, U.B., Mcgouran, J.F., Brolih, S., Ptchelkine, D., El-Sagheer, A.H., Brown, T., Mchugh, P.J., RPA activates the XPF-ERCC1 endonuclease to initiate processing of DNA interstrand crosslinks, EMBO Journal, 2017 Journal Article, 2017

Biochemical and mass spectrometry-based approaches to profile sumoylation in human cells in, Activity-Based Proteomics, Humana Press, New York, NY, Springer, 2017, pp131-144 , [Kessler, B.M., Bursomanno, S., McGouran, J.F., Hickson, I.D., Liu, Y.] Book Chapter, 2017

Raza, F., McGouran, J.F., Kessler, B.M., Possee, R.D., King, L.A., Phosphorylation induces structural changes in the Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus P10 protein, Journal of Virology, 91, (13), 2017 Journal Article, 2017

Grijzenhout A, Godwin J, Koseki H, Gdula M, Szumska D, McGouran JF, Bhattacharya S, Kessler BM, Brockdorff N, Cooper S, Functional analysis of AEBP2, a PRC2 Polycomb protein, reveals a Trithorax phenotype in embryonic development and in ES cells., Development (Cambridge, England), 2016 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Ghari, F. and Quirke, A.-M. and Munro, S. and Kawalkowska, J. and Picaud, S. and McGouran, J. and Subramanian, V. and Muth, A. and Williams, R. and Kessler, B. and Thompson, P.R. and Fillipakopoulos, P. and Knapp, S. and Venables, P.J. and Thangue, N.B.L., Immunology: Citrullination-acetylation interplay guides E2F-1 activity during the inflammatory response, Science Advances, 2, (2), 2016 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Ghari F, Quirke AM, Munro S, Kawalkowska J, Picaud S, McGouran J, Subramanian V, Muth A, Williams R, Kessler B, Thompson PR, Fillipakopoulos P, Knapp S, Venables PJ, La Thangue NB, Citrullination-acetylation interplay guides E2F-1 activity during the inflammatory response., Science advances, 2, (2), 2016, pe1501257 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Maniam S, Coutts AS, Stratford MR, McGouran J, Kessler B, La Thangue NB, Cofactor Strap regulates oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial p53 activity through ATP synthase., Cell death and differentiation, 22, (1), 2015, p156-63 Journal Article, 2015

Ying S, Chen Z, Medhurst AL, Neal JA, Bao Z, Mortusewicz O, McGouran J, Song X, Shen H, Hamdy FC, Kessler BM, Meek K, Helleday T, DNA-PKcs and PARP1 bind to unresected stalled DNA replication forks where they recruit XRCC1 to mediate repair., Cancer research, 2015 Journal Article, 2015

Watson AS, Riffelmacher T, Stranks A, Williams O, De Boer J, Cain K, MacFarlane M, McGouran J, Kessler B, Khandwala S, Chowdhury O, Puleston D, Phadwal K, Mortensen M, Ferguson D, Soilleux E, Woll P, Jacobsen SE, Simon AK, Autophagy limits proliferation and glycolytic metabolism in acute myeloid leukemia., Cell death discovery, 1, 2015 Journal Article, 2015

Bursomanno S, McGouran JF, Kessler BM, Hickson ID, Liu Y, Regulation of SUMO2 target proteins by the proteasome in human cells exposed to replication stress., Journal of proteome research, 14, (4), 2015, p1687-99 Journal Article, 2015

Kaisaki PJ, Otto GW, McGouran JF, Toubal A, Argoud K, Waller-Evans H, Finlay C, Caldérari S, Bihoreau MT, Kessler BM, Gauguier D, Mott R, Genetic control of differential acetylation in diabetic rats., PloS one, 9, (4), 2014, pe94555 Journal Article, 2014

Bowles EJ, Schiffner T, Rosario M, Needham GA, Ramaswamy M, McGouran J, Kessler B, LaBranche C, McMichael AJ, Montefiori D, Sattentau QJ, Hanke T, Stewart-Jones GB, Comparison of neutralizing antibody responses elicited from highly diverse polyvalent heterotrimeric HIV-1 gp140 cocktail immunogens versus a monovalent counterpart in rhesus macaques., PloS one, 9, (12), 2014, pe114709 Journal Article, 2014

Blackledge NP, Farcas AM, Kondo T, King HW, McGouran JF, Hanssen LL, Ito S, Cooper S, Kondo K, Koseki Y, Ishikura T, Long HK, Sheahan TW, Brockdorff N, Kessler BM, Koseki H, Klose RJ, Variant PRC1 complex-dependent H2A ubiquitylation drives PRC2 recruitment and polycomb domain formation., Cell, 157, (6), 2014, p1445-59 Journal Article, 2014

Bush J., Walport L., McGouran J., Leung I., Berridge G., Van Berkel S., Basak A., Kessler B., Schofield C., The Ugi four-component reaction enables expedient synthesis and comparison of photoaffinity probes, Chemical Science, 4, (11), 2013, p4115-4120 Journal Article, 2013 DOI

Zheng S, Moehlenbrink J, Lu YC, Zalmas LP, Sagum CA, Carr S, McGouran JF, Alexander L, Fedorov O, Munro S, Kessler B, Bedford MT, Yu Q, La Thangue NB, Arginine methylation-dependent reader-writer interplay governs growth control by E2F-1., Molecular cell, 52, (1), 2013, p37-51 Journal Article, 2013

Joanna McGouran, Holger Kramer & Benedikt Kessler, 'Active Site probes', Isis Innovation Limited, WO 2013/144656 Al, 2013 Patent, 2013 URL

New M, Olzscha H, Liu G, Khan O, Stimson L, McGouran J, Kerr D, Coutts A, Kessler B, Middleton M, La Thangue NB, A regulatory circuit that involves HR23B and HDAC6 governs the biological response to HDAC inhibitors., Cell death and differentiation, 20, (10), 2013, p1306-16 Journal Article, 2013

Lercher L, McGouran JF, Kessler BM, Schofield CJ, Davis BG, DNA modification under mild conditions by Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling for the generation of functional probes., Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 52, (40), 2013, p10553-8 Journal Article, 2013

Bogani D, Morgan MA, Nelson AC, Costello I, McGouran JF, Kessler BM, Robertson EJ, Bikoff EK, The PR/SET domain zinc finger protein Prdm4 regulates gene expression in embryonic stem cells but plays a nonessential role in the developing mouse embryo., Molecular and cellular biology, 33, (19), 2013, p3936-50 Journal Article, 2013

McGouran JF, Gaertner SR, Altun M, Kramer HB, Kessler BM, Deubiquitinating enzyme specificity for ubiquitin chain topology profiled by di-ubiquitin activity probes., Chemistry & biology, 20, (12), 2013, p1447-55 Journal Article, 2013

McGouran JF, Kramer HB, Mackeen MM, di Gleria K, Altun M, Kessler BM, Fluorescence-based active site probes for profiling deubiquitinating enzymes., Organic & biomolecular chemistry, 10, (17), 2012, p3379-83 Journal Article, 2012

Farcas AM, Blackledge NP, Sudbery I, Long HK, McGouran JF, Rose NR, Lee S, Sims D, Cerase A, Sheahan TW, Koseki H, Brockdorff N, Ponting CP, Kessler BM, Klose RJ, KDM2B links the Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) to recognition of CpG islands., eLife, 1, 2012, pe00205 Journal Article, 2012

Cho EC, Zheng S, Munro S, Liu G, Carr SM, Moehlenbrink J, Lu YC, Stimson L, Khan O, Konietzny R, McGouran J, Coutts AS, Kessler B, Kerr DJ, Thangue NB, Arginine methylation controls growth regulation by E2F-1., The EMBO journal, 31, (7), 2012, p1785-97 Journal Article, 2012

Altun M, Kramer HB, Willems LI, McDermott JL, Leach CA, Goldenberg SJ, Kumar KG, Konietzny R, Fischer R, Kogan E, Mackeen MM, McGouran J, Khoronenkova SV, Parsons JL, Dianov GL, Nicholson B, Kessler BM, Activity-based chemical proteomics accelerates inhibitor development for deubiquitylating enzymes., Chemistry & biology, 18, (11), 2011, p1401-12 Journal Article, 2011

Boutureira O, McGouran JF, Stafford RL, Emmerson DP, Davis BG, Accessible sugars as asymmetric olefin epoxidation organocatalysts: glucosaminide ketones in the synthesis of terminal epoxides., Organic & biomolecular chemistry, 7, (20), 2009, p4285-8 Journal Article, 2009

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

Joanna McGouran & Neil Taylor, 'Protein Labelling', Barker Brettell LLP, 2020, 1 November 2022 Patent, 2020 Other

Joanna McGouran, Proteins and DNA-New Tools through Chemical Modification, Research seminar, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Target Discovery Institute, 28/02, 2020, Dr Nicola Ternette Invited Talk, 2020

Joanna McGouran, Latent probes for the covalent capture of active enzymes, RSC Ireland Regional Meeting , UCD, Ireland, 7th June, 2019, Prof. Pat Guiry Invited Talk, 2019

Joanna McGouran, Activatable probes targeting deubiquitinating enzymes, Activity-Based Protein Profiling 2019, Leuven, Belgium, 27th March, 2019, Prof. Martin Witte & Prof. Steven Verhelst Invited Talk, 2019

Joanna McGouran, DNA modification to examine 5' exonuclease activity, The 18th RSC Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group (CBBG) Firbush conference, Edinburgh, UK, 6-8th September, 2019 Oral Presentation, 2019

Joanna McGouran, Chemical proteomics: Protein modification to unravel biological function, RSC Organic Symposium , TCD, Ireland, 18th May, 2018, Prof. Eoin Scanlan Invited Talk, 2018

Joanna McGouran, 5' oligonucleotide modification for enhanced nuclease binding, Young Investigators Workshop, Merton College, Oxford, UK, 23-25th August, 2018, Prof. Veronique Grouverner Invited Talk, 2018

Research Expertise

Projects

  • Title
    • Disulfide modification for enhanced stability and selective delivery
  • Funding Agency
    • Science Foundation Ireland
  • Date From
    • 09/2020
  • Date To
    • 09/2024
  • Title
    • A New Approach to Inhibiting Nucleotide Excision Repair Using Cyclic Peptides
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish research Council
  • Date From
    • 10/2019
  • Date To
    • 10/2023
  • Title
    • Activity based probes for DNA processing enzymes based on modified Cytosine
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish research Council
  • Date From
    • 10/2019
  • Date To
    • 10/2023
  • Title
    • New Probes for active enzymes
  • Funding Agency
    • Trinity College Dublin
  • Date From
    • 01/2020
  • Date To
    • 01/2024
  • Title
    • Oligonucleotide probes to study the 5' exonuclease SNM1A and its function in DNA damage repair
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish research Council
  • Date From
    • 10/2017
  • Date To
    • 10/2021
  • Title
    • Activity based probes to examine DNA damage repair function and activity in cell systems
  • Funding Agency
    • Wellcome Trust ISSF/Trinity College Dublin
  • Date From
    • 04/2017
  • Date To
    • 04/2019
  • Title
    • Probing DNA damage repair
  • Funding Agency
    • Trinity College Dublin
  • Date From
    • 09/2016
  • Date To
    • 09/2020
  • Title
    • New Probes for deubiquitinating enzymes
  • Funding Agency
    • Trinity College Dublin
  • Date From
    • 09/2016
  • Date To
    • 09/2020
  • Title
    • Activity Based Probes to reveal new insights into P53 deubiquitination
  • Funding Agency
    • Irish research Council
  • Date From
    • 09/2020
  • Date To
    • 09/2024

Keywords

Activity-Based protein profiling; Biochemistry, Nucleic Acid; Bioconjugation; BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY; Cellular Biology; Epigenetics; Mass Spectrometry; Organic chemistry; Proteins, enzymology and protein engineering; Proteomes, proteomics

Recognition

Representations

Member of the Early Career Advisory Board for the American Chemical Society's new journal ACS Bio & Med Chem Au 2022

Swiss National Foundation evaluation committee of the SNSF special call on coronaviruses 2020

External Examiner, PhD thesis: University of Oxford, University of Glasgow. Masters thesis: University College Dublin. 2019

Reviewer for several international chemistry journals including publications from the American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley, Elsevier, MDPI and Sage 2019

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group Committee. 2021

Reviewer for UKRI grants including EPSRC and MRC 2020

Awards and Honours

MA University of Oxford 2009

Scholarship, University of Oxford 2002-5

Memberships

Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 – Present

The Irish Mass Spectrometry Society 2019 – Present

Visiting assistant professor, University College Dublin 2022 – 2026

American Chemical Society 2021 – Present