Kim Jonas and Aylin Hanyaloglu have recently joined the Crick as satellite group leaders of the Single Molecule GPCR Laboratory. They tell us about what their lab will be working on and how they're settling in so far.

Tell us about your career so far

Kim (KJ): My career has been reproductive health and disease focussed. I completed my PhD at UCL studying the aspects of ovarian function, specifically the pathways involved in ovulation. This ignited my passion for reproductive physiology and women’s health research.

I completed my first postdoc at the Royal Veterinary College where I studied aspects of how specific parts of the brain control hormonal functions.

I then went on to do a second postdoc at Imperial College London researching how the gonadotrophin hormone receptors, receptors found on the surface of cells, regulate reproductive functions.

It was during this postdoc that I developed and refined an imaging technique known as PD-PALM, which has enabled us to get high-resolution images of gonadotrophin hormone receptors so we can better understand how they work.

The work that Aylin and I are continuing together at the Crick marks the next phase of this project, with the ultimate goal of improving women’s reproductive and overall health and assisted conception outcomes of women undergoing IVF.

 Aylin (AH): For more than 25 years, I have been studying G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a family of signalling receptors that are key to all physiological systems and that act as important drug targets. However, my first research love was reproductive biology. 

I started my PhD at the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences unit in Edinburgh in 1997, though ended up moving midway through to the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1999 when my supervisor relocated. It was at UWA that I started becoming interested in the development of techniques to study GPCRs more closely.

I moved to the University of California, San Francisco for a postdoc where I studied the mechanisms involved in GPCR activity more in-depth. When I moved back to London to start my independent research group at Imperial, I started working on gonadotrophin hormone receptors, which are members of the GPCR family.

Studying these hormone receptors is key to understanding reproduction, and they may be potential targets for treating conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome. 

Developing PD-PALM super-resolution imaging method with Kim and the unexpected insight it brought was an exciting time, and it’s wonderful that we get to continue this work together at the Crick. 

What is your role outside the Crick? 

KJ: I’m currently a Reader in Reproductive Physiology at King’s, in the Department of Women and Children’s Health.

AH: I’m currently a Professor in Molecular Medicine at Imperial, and have recently become Head of the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology.

What attracted you to the Crick?

KJ & AH: Broadly speaking, the Crick’s ethos of boundary-less, multidisciplinary research is highly appealing. 

We also appreciate the opportunity to work with other researchers, such as our host lab led by Sonia Gandhi, which is using images of single molecules to understand biological complexes that involve more than one protein. 

The additional science technology platforms and laboratory set up were also a big draw. 

What will your lab be working on?

KJ & AH: Our lab will be working on a superfamily of receptors called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that allow messages to pass in and out of our cells’ membranes. The specific receptor we are interested in, the luteinising hormone receptor (LHR), is a key reproductive hormone receptor, which is important for ovarian function, ovulation and maintenance of pregnancy through the first trimester. 

We are working to uncover the molecular mechanisms controlling LHR’s functions in vivo, exploring how complexes it forms with itself, other receptors and signal machinery modulate its ovarian functions. 

To do this, we are using single molecule imaging and pre-clinical in vivo models to understand the composition and regulation of LHR complexes.

How are you settling into life at the Crick?

KJ & AH: We have settled in well, making the most of the science technology platforms and opportunities that being at the Crick brings. Although we are attached to the Crick, our attachments are part-time and for a discrete project, so we still spend most of our time at our home institutions.

However, Aylin has started a partnership with AstraZeneca through the Crick-AZ alliance scheme, and has a full-time Crick postdoc. 

How have you found setting up your lab?

KJ & AH: I think we underestimated the time it would take to set everything up, so it took a little longer than we anticipated. The plus side has been how helpful everyone has been.

And finally – in an alternate universe where you weren’t a researcher, what would you be doing?

KJ: Possibly a forensic scientist or police detective! The problem solving and methodological working of both jobs has been appealing since I was a teenager. I will admit that this has no doubt been heavily influenced by my love of detective/crime/thriller fiction.

AH: As a child, I remember wanting to be either a journalist or a paediatrician. Probably both signs of a future science career with an interest in problem solving, seeking the truth and how our bodies work.