CONTACT DETAILS:

Department of Biological Sciences
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Sir Alexander Fleming building, 5th floor
Imperial College Road,
SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)171-5945374 Fax: +44 (0)171-5842056

e-mail: tluque@ic.ac.uk

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

June 1992: Degree in Biology; University of Barcelona; Spain.

December 1997: PhD degree in Biology. Department of Genetics, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. Thesis entitled "Structural and functional analysis of some members of the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme family from Drosophila". Supervisor: Professor Roser Gonzàlez-Duarte.

GRANTS AND POSITIONS HELD:

Courses 90-91 and 91-92: Grants to collaborate in a laboratory, as an undergraduate student. Dept. Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

1992-1994: Teaching assistant fellowships. Dept. Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
September 1994: Grant of the ERASMUS Interuniversity Cooperation Programme to attend the "Erasmus Intesive Course in Molecular Genetics", University of Paris, France.

1994-1997: Predoctoral fellowship "Plan de formación de personal investigador" (FPI), Spanish government. Dept. Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

1996: Grant for three months to work in a foreign lab. FPI, Spanish government.

1997: Grant for two months to work in a foreign lab. FPI, Spanish government.

1998: Postdoctoral grant of the Leverhulme Trust. Dept. of Biology. Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, U.K.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

1990-1991: "Isolation of the gene responsible for Myotonic Dystrophy". Dept. Genètica, Fac. Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

1991-1992: "Isolation and characterization of alcohol dehydrogenase processed pseudogenes from several Drosophila species of the obscura group". This type of sequence has only recently been described in invertebrates and the evolutionary rates of processed pseudogenes are especially interesting. Structural analyses, sequence comparisons of several processed pseudogenes and phylogenetic studies were performed. Dept. Genètica, Fac. Biologia, Univ. Barcelona, Spain.

1992-1997: "Structural and functional analysis of some members of the alcohol dehydrogenase protein family from Drosophila melanogaster". Isolation and characterization of the mammalian class III Adh homologous gene from D. melanogaster, which turned out to be the most ancestral form of the mammalian alcohol dehydrogenases. Isolation and characterization of two similar Sdh genes, distantly related to mammalian ADHs. Expression studies and in situ hybridization were also carried out. Dept. Genètica, Fac. Biologia, Univ. Barcelona, Spain.

1996: "Isolation and kinetic analysis of the sorbitol dehydrogenase enzyme from adults of Drosophila". Karolinska Institutet. Stockholm. Sweden.

1998 to date: "Characterization of members of the UDP-glucosyltransferase family from insects".
A number of UDP-glucosyltransferase cDNAs have been isolated from Drosophila melanogaster and Bombyx mori. Recombinant baculoviruses overexpressing these cDNAs in insect cells have been generated. Work is currently underway characterising the proteins expressed by these viruses. Dept of Biology. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

1992-1993: Lab courses in General Genetics, Universitat de Barcelona.
1992-1993: Lab courses in Molecular Genetics and in General Genetics, Universitat de Barcelona.
1993-1994/1994-1995/1995-1996/1996-1997: Lab courses in Molecular Genetics, Universitat de Barcelona.

CONGRESS COMMUNICATIONS:

• Written communication "Caracterització d'una alcohol deshidrogenasa de cadena mitjana a Drosophila" in the Seminari Conjunt de la Secció de Biologia Molecular i de Biologia del Desenvolupament. Societat Catalana de Biologia. Sitges, Spain, 2-3 June, 1994.
• Poster presentation "Structure of the D. melanogaster glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase/octanol dehydrogenase gene: evolutionary pathway of the alcohol dehydrogenase genes" in the XXIX Jornadas de Genética Luso-Españolas. Lleida, Spain, 6-8 October, 1994.
• Oral presentation: "Determination of the complete CpGV genome sequence". 143rd Meeting of the Society of General Microbiology. Edinburgh, U.K., 12-16 April, 1999.
• Oral presentation: "Determination of the complete CpGV genome sequence". 32nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertabrate Pathology. Irvine, USA, 22-27 August, 1999.

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS:

Danielsson, O., Atrian, S., Luque, T., Hjelmqvist, L., Gonzàlez-Duarte, R. and Jörnvall,. (1994) Fundamental molecular differences between alcohol dehydrogenases classes: Drosophila octanol dehydrogenase is a class III alcohol dehydrogenase, establishing molecular patterns and a continuous distribution of this zinc enzyme family. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91, 4980-4984.

Luque, T., Atrian, S., Danielsson, O., Jörnvall, H. and Gonzàlez-Duarte, R. (1994) Structure of the Drosophila melanogaster glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase/octanol dehydrogenase gene (class III alcohol dehydrogenases). Eur. J. Biochem. 225, 985-993.

Luque, T., Marfany, G. and Gonzàlez-Duarte, R. (1997) Characterization and molecular analysis of Adh retrosequences in species of the Drosophila obscura group. Mol. Biol. Evol. 14(12), 1316-1325.

Luque, T., Hjelmqvist, L., Marfany, G., Danielsson, O., El-Ahmad, M., Persson, B., Jörnvall, H., Gonzàlez-Duarte, R. (1998) Sorbitol dehydrogenase of Drosophila. Gene, protein, and expression data show a two-gene system. J. Biol. Chem. 237(51), 34293-34301.

Luque, T. and O'Reilly, D. 1999. Generation of baculovirus expression vectors. Molecular Biotechnology, in press.