Ildem Akerman

Dr Ildem Akerman PhD

Department of Metabolism and Systems Science
Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellow
Associate Professor in Functional Genomics

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6857
Fax: +44 (0)121 415 8712
Email: i.akerman@bham.ac.uk
Twitter

Address: Institute of Biomedical Research
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Akerman is interested in answering fundamental questions about gene regulation in diseased and healthy pancreatic beta cells through integrated use of molecular, genomic, computational and systems biology. Her team aims to understand how various types of noncoding DNA elements interact to establish gene expression in the pancreatic beta cell. With the support of Diabetes UK, Akerman lab has established a state-of-the-art stem cell to pancreatic beta cell differentiation protocol and aims to understand and improve test-tube pancreatic beta cells for the treatment of diabetes.

Qualifications

DPhil in Molecular Genetics, University of Oxford, 2011
MSc in Molecular Genetics, University of Oxford, 2003
BSc (highest distinction) in Genetics, University of Rochester, 2002

Biography

Dr Ildem Akerman received her DPhil. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Oxford. She later joined the team of Professor Jorge Ferrer as a postdoctoral researcher at IDIBAPS, Spain/Imperial College, London. Her earlier work characterized coding mutations that cause human pancreatic agenesis in the GATA6 gene, a previously unsuspected candidate in the pancreatic development. In addition to coding mutations, she characterized a number of cis-regulatory noncoding mutations that underlie neonatal diabetes, proving that non-coding mutations can also underlie human neonatal diabetes. In 2016, Ildem moved to IGH, Montpellier, as a Laboratory of Excellence Fellow (Labex) in order to study the link between transcription and initiation of DNA replication.

After a short year, she was recruited to the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science (MSS) at the University 麻豆精选 as a Birmingham Fellow, her first position as an independent group leader. In 2020, Ildem was awarded a prestigious RD Lawrence fellow and an AMS Springboard award and soon after got promoted to Associate Professor.

Research

Dr Akerman's research aims to understand how gene expression is established and maintained in the pancreatic beta cell by the cis-regulatory elements and transcriptional networks.

One line of research in the laboratory is to study how transcription factors impact pancreatic beta cell differentiation in vitro. For this, her talented post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Fiona Docherty established a 3-dimensional (3D) stem cell to pancreatic beta cell differentiation protocol (see Figure). This Diabetes UK funded project aims to identify druggable novel regulators of pancreatic beta cell differentiation with the aim of generating better functioning stem cell generated beta cells.

Another line of research in the Akerman lab focuses on studying the link between DNA replication and its potential regulatory effects on transcription and 3D genome structure during differentiation (of pancreatic beta cells). This project aims to clarify the cross-talk of two fundamental processes of a mammalian cell during development.

Other activities

Deputy Lead for Genomics Birmingham Tech Hub Committee (2020-2022)
Early Career Representative, IMSR executive committee (2018-2020)
SUSTAIN MDS 2021 - Mentee
Lecturer for MSc degree in Genomic Medicine, and MSc Bioinformatics, University 麻豆精选
Mentor, Black Internship Programme, HDR UK (2021-now)
Labex Postdoc representative (2016-2017)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cuozzo, F, Viloria, K, Shilleh, AH, Nasteska, D, Frazer-Morris, C, Tong, J, Jiao, Z, Boufersaoui, A, Marzullo, B, Rosoff, DB, Smith, HR, Bonner, C, Kerr-Conte, J, Pattou, F, Nano, R, Piemonti, L, Johnson, PRV, Spiers, R, Roberts, J, Lavery, GG, Clark, A, Ceresa, CDL, Ray, DW, Hodson, L, Davies, AP, Rutter, GA, Oshima, M, Scharfmann, R, Merrins, MJ, Akerman, I, Tennant, DA, Ludwig, C & Hodson, DJ 2024, '', Cell Reports, vol. 43, no. 4, 114047.

Prorok, P, Forouzanfar, F, Murugarren, N, Peiffer, I, Charton, R, Akerman, I & M茅chali, M 2023, '', Cell Reports, vol. 42, no. 4, 112280.

Akerman, I, Maestro, MA, De Franco, E, Grau, V, Flanagan, S, Garcia-Hurtado, J, Mittler, G, Ravassard, P, Piemonti, L, Ellard, S, Hattersley, AT & Ferrer, J 2021, '', Cell Reports, vol. 35, no. 2, 108981.

Nasteska, D, Fine, N, Ashford, F, Cuozzo, F, Viloria, K, Smith, G, Dahir, A, Dawson, PWJ, Lai, Y-C, Bastidas-Ponce, A, Bakhti, M, Rutter, G, Fiancette, R, Nano, R, Piemonti, L, Lickert, H, Zhou, Q, Akerman, I & Hodson, D 2021, '', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 674.

Schiffer, L, Bossey, A, Kempegowda, P, Taylor, A, Akerman, I, Scheel-Toellner, D, Storbeck, K-H & Arlt, W 2021, '', European Journal of Endocrinology, vol. 184, no. 3, pp. 353鈥�363.

Nasteska, D, Cuozzo, F, Viloria, K, Johnson, E, Thakker, A, Bakar, RB, Westbrook, R, Barlow, J, Hoang, M, Joseph, J, Lavery, G, Akerman, I, Cantley, J, Hodson, L, Tennant, D & Hodson, D 2021, '', JCI Insight, vol. 6, no. 16, e140288.

Westgate, C, Botfield, H, Alimajstorovic, Z, Yiangou, A, Walsh, M, Smith, G, Singhal, R, Mitchell, J, Grech, O, Markey, K, Hebenstreit, D, Tennant, D, Tomlinson, J, Mollan, S, Ludwig, C, Akerman, I, Lavery, G & Sinclair, A 2021, '', JCI Insight, vol. 6, no. 10, e145346.

Akerman, I, Kasaai, B, Bazarova, A, Sang, PB, Peiffer, I, Artufel, M, Derelle, R, Smith, G, Rodriguez-Martinez, M, Romano, M, Kinet, S, Tino, P, Theillet, C, Taylor, N, Ballester, B & M茅chali, M 2020, '', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 4826 .

Viloria, KM, Nasteska, D, Briant, LJB, Heising, S, Larner, D, Fine, N, Ashford, F, Da Silva Xavier, G, Jimenez-Gonzalez, M, Hasib, A, Cuozzo, F, Manning Fox, J, MacDonald, P, Akerman, I, Lavery, G, Flaxman, C, Morgan, N, Richardson, S, Hewison, M & Hodson, D 2020, '', Cell Reports, vol. 31, no. 11, 107761.

Bazarova, A, Nieduszynski, CA, Akerman, I & Burroughs, NJ 2019, '', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 2229鈥�2243.

Ganier, O, Prorok, P, Akerman, I & M茅chali, M 2019, '', Current Opinion in Cell Biology, vol. 58, pp. 134-141.

Elhassan, YS, Kluckova, K, Fletcher, RS, Schmidt, MS, Garten, A, Doig, CL, Cartwright, DM, Oakey, L, Burley, CV, Jenkinson, N, Wilson, M, Lucas, SJE, Akerman, I, Seabright, A, Lai, Y, Tennant, DA, Nightingale, P, Wallis, GA, Manolopoulos, KN, Brenner, C, Philp, A & Lavery, GG 2019, '', Cell Reports, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 1717-1728.e6.

Akerman, I, Tu, Z, Beucher, A, Rolando, DMY, Sauty-Colace, C, Benazra, M, Nakic, N, Yang, J, Wang, H, Pasquali, L, Moran, I, Garcia-Hurtado, J, Castro, N, Gonzalez-Franco, R, Stewart, AF, Bonner, C, Piemonti, L, Berney, T, Groop, L, Kerr-Conte, J, Pattou, F, Argmann, C, Schadt, E, Ravassard, P & Ferrer, J 2017, '', Cell Metabolism, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 400-411.

Preprint

Schiffer, L, Bossey, A, Taylor, AE, Akerman, I, Scheel-Toellner, D, Storbeck, K-H & Arlt, W 2020 ''.

Working paper

Viloria, K, Nasteska, D, Briant, LJB, Heising, S, Larner, D, Fine, NHF, Ashford, FB, Xavier, GDS, Ramos, MJ, Fox, JEM, MacDonald, PE, Akerman, I, Lavery, GG, Flaxman, C, Morgan, NG, Richardson, SJ, Hewison, M & Hodson, DJ 2019 '' bioRxiv.