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About

About Rebecca:

I studied Biochemistry in Melbourne at La Trobe University where I completed my bachelors with honours, and undertook a PhD in drug discovery and inflammation. La Trobe has an exceptional biochemistry program, and I was thrilled to be accepted and be part of it. I then made the leap across to London for four years to continue my research at the Institute of Cancer Research, where I got to be part of a fantastic lab and where I learnt many critical skills. I then accepted a position as Laboratory Head at WEHI in 2020 and I now lead a team of 10 incredible scientists, 4 post-doctoral researchers, 5 PhD students and 1 RA to target ‘undruggable’ inflammatory proteins.

My team is highly motivated, has a fierce intellect and collaborate extensively nationally and internationally to achieve our scientific goals.

Our most recent achievement has been the introduction of an innovative drug discovery technology to WEHI and we are the leaders behind the development, integration and uptake of this technology amongst the larger biosciences sector across Australia.

Publications

Selected publications from Dr Bekky Feltham
  1. haochen, nghi h.nguyena, charlene m.magtoto, simon a.cobbold, grace m.bidgood, lizeth g.meza guzman, lachlan w. richardson, jason corbin, amanda e.au, bernhard c.lechtenberg, rebecca feltham, kate d.sutherland, christophgrohmann, sandra e.nicholson, brad e.sleebs. design and characterization of a heterobifunctional degrader of keap1. redox biology. (2022)
  2. daniel s simpson…, rebecca feltham*, james e vince*. interferon-γ primes macrophages for pathogen ligand-induced killing via a caspase-8 and mitochondrial cell death pathway. immunity. (2022)
  3. linossi em, li k, veggiani g, tan c, dehkhoda f, hockings c, calleja dj, keating n, feltham r, brooks aj, li ss, sidhu ss, babon jj, kershaw nj, nicholson se. discovery of an exosite on the socs2-sh2 domain that enhances sh2 binding to phosphorylated ligands. nature communications. (2021)
  4. christoph grohmann, charlene m. magtoto, joel r. walker, stephen mieruszynski, daniel s. simpson, anna gabrielyan, hao dong, bridget dorizzi, annette v. jacobsen, emma morrish, natasha silke, james m. murphy, joan k. heath, andrea testa, chiara maniaci, alessio ciulli, guillaume lessene, john silke, and rebecca feltham* nanotacs: nanoluc-targeting protein degraders that parallel existing technology (2021). nature communications
  5. swarna lekhavijayaraj*, rebecca feltham*, maryam rashidi, daniel frank, zhengyang liu, daniel simpson, gregor ebert, angelina vince, marco herold, andrew kueh, jaclyn pearson, laura dagley, james murphy, andrew webb, kate lawlor, and james vince. the ubiquitylation of il-1 limits its cleavage by caspase-1 and targets it for proteasomal degradation (2021) nature communications.
  6. klemm t, ebert g, calleja dj, allison cc, richardson lw, bernardini jp, lu bg, kuchel nw, grohmann c, shibata y, gan zy, cooney jp, doerflinger m, au ae, blackmore tr, van der heden van noort gj, geurink pp, ovaa h, newman j, riboldi-tunnicliffe a, czabotar pe, mitchell jp, feltham r, lechtenberg bc, lowes kn, dewson g, pellegrini m, lessene g, komander d. mechanism and inhibition of the papain-like protease, plpro, of sars-cov-2 (2020) embo j.
  7. ashley p. ng, hannah d. coughlan, soroor hediyeh-zadeh, kira behrens,timothy m. johanson, michael sze yuan low, charles c. bell, omer gilan, yih-chih chan, andrew j. kueh, thomas boudier, rebecca feltham, anna gabrielyan, ladina dirago, craig d. hyland, helen ierino, sandra mifsud, elizabeth viney, tracy willson, mark a. dawson, rhys s. allan, marco j. herold, kelly rogers, david m. tarlinton, gordon k. smyth, melissa j. davis, stephen l. nutt & warren s. alexander. an erg-driven transcriptional program controls b cell lymphopoiesis. (2020) nature communications.
  8. nguyen pm, dagley lf, preaudet a, lam n, giam m, fung ky, aizel k, van duijneveldt g, tan cw, hirokawa y, yip hyk, love cg, poh ar, cruz a, burstroem c, feltham r, abdirahman sm, meiselbach k, low rrj, palmieri m, ernst m, webb ai, burgess t, sieber om, bouillet p, putoczki tl. loss of bcl-g, a bcl-2 family member, augments the development of inflammation-associated colorectal cancer. (2019) cell death and differentiation.
  9. rashidi m, simpson ds, hempel a, frank d, petrie ej, vince aj, feltham rl, murphy j, chatfield sm, salvesen gs et al. the pyroptotic cell death effector gasdermin d is activated by gout-associated uric acid crystals but is dispensable for cell death and il-1β release. (2019) the journal of immunology.
  10. anderton h, bandala-sanchez e, simpson d, rickard ja, hall c, vince je, silke j, liccardi g and feltham r*. ripk1 prevents tradd-driven, but tnfr1 independent, apoptosis during development. (2018) cell death and differentiation *senior and corresponding
  11. feltham r, kunzah jamal, tencho tenev, gianmaria liccardi, isabel jaco, celia monteiro domingues, otto morris, sidonie wicky john, alessandro annibaldi, marcella widya, conor kearney, danielle clancy, paul r. elliott, timo glatter, qi qiao, andrew j. thompson, alexey nesvizhskii, alexander schmidt, david komander, hao wu, seamus martin, and pascal meier. mind bomb regulates cell death during tnf signaling by repressing ripk1’s cytotoxic potential. (2018). cell reports
  12. gianmaria liccardi, laura ramos garcia, tencho tenev, alessandro annibaldi, arnaud j. legrand, david robertson feltham r, holly anderton, maurice darding, nieves peltzer, marius dannappel, hannah schunke, luca l. fava, manuel d. haschka, timo glatter, alexey nesvizhskii, alexander schmidt, philip a. harris, john bertin, peter j. gough, andreas villunger, john silke, manolis pasparakis, katiuscia bianchi, and pascal meier. ripk1 and caspase-8 ensures chromosome stability independently of their role in cell death and inflammation. (2018) molecular cell
  13. kate e. lawlor*, feltham r *, monica yabal*, stephanie a. conos, kaiwen w. chen, stephanie ziehe, carina graß, yifan zhan, tan a. nguyen, cathrine hall, angelina j. vince, simon m. chatfield,
damian b. d’silva, kenneth c. pang, kate schroder, john silke, david l. vaux, philipp j. jost, and james e. vince. xiap loss triggers ripk3- and caspase-8-driven il-1b activation and cell death as a consequence of tlr-myd88-induced ciap1-traf2 degradation. (2017) cell reports
  14. jaco i, annibaldi a, lalaoui n, wilson r, tenev t, laurien l, kim c, jamal k, wicky john s, liccardi g, chau d, murphy jm, brumatti g, feltham r, pasparakis m, silke j, meier p. mk2 phosphorylates ripk1 to prevent tnf-induced cell death. (2017) molecular cell.
  15. orme mh, liccardi g, moderau n, feltham r, wicky-john s, tenev t, aram l, wilson r, bianchi k, morris o, monteiro domingues c, robertson d, tare m, wepf a, williams d, bergmann a, gstaiger m, arama e, ribeiro ps, meier p. the unconventional myosin crinkled and its mammalian orthologue myo7a regulate caspases in their signalling roles. (2016) nature communications 10;7:10972
  16. condon sm, mitsuuchi y, deng y, laporte mg, rippin sr, haimowitz t, alexander md, kumar pt, hendi ms, lee yh, benetatos ca, yu g, kapoor gs, neiman e, seipel me, burns jm, graham ma, mckinlay ma, li x, wang j, shi y, feltham r, bettjeman b, cumming mh, vince je, khan n, silke j, day cl, chunduru sk. birinapant, a smac-mimetic with improved tolerability for the treatment of solid tumours and hematological malignancies. (2014) j med chem
  17. moulin m, anderton h, voss a, thomas t, wong w, bankovaki a, feltham r, chau d, cook w, silke j, vaux dl. iaps limit activation of rip kinases by tnf receptor 1 during development. (2012) embo j
  18. feltham r, shirley s, bettjeman b, mace p, vaux dl, silke j and day cl. smac mimetics activate the e3 ligase activity of ciap1 protein by promoting ring dimerisation. (2011) journal of biological chemistry 286:17015-28.
  19. maurice darding, feltham r, tencho tenev, katiuscia bianchi, christopher benetatos, john silke and pascal meier. molecular determinants of smac mimetic induced degradation of ciap1 and ciap2. (2010) cell death & differentiation
  20. feltham r, maryline moulin, james e. vince, peter d. mace, wendy wei-lynn wong, holly anderton, catherine l. day, david l. vaux and john silke. tnf signaling, but not tweak triggered ciap-traf2 degradation, requires ciap1 ring dimerization and e2 binding. (2009) journal of biological chemistry 285:17525-3
  21. tobias l. haas, christoph h. emmerich, björn gerlach, anna c. schmukle, stefanie m.cordier, eva rieser, feltham r, james vince, uwe warnken, till wenger, ronald koschny, david komander, john silke, henning walczak. recruitment of the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex (lubac) stabilizes the tnf-r1 signaling complex and is required for tnf mediated gene induction. (2009) molecular cell 36:831-44.
  22. vince je, pantaki d, feltham r, mace pd, cordier sm, schmukle ac, davidson aj, callus ba, wong ww, gentle ie, carter h, lee ef, walczak h, day cl, vaux dl, silke j. traf2 must bind to ciaps for tnf to efficiently activate nf-{kappa}b and to prevent tnf-induced apoptosis. (2009) journal of biological chemistry. 284:35906-35915
  23. mace pd, linke k, feltham r, schumacher fr, smith ca, vaux dl, silke j, day cl. structures of the ciap2 ring domain reveal conformational changes associated with ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (e2) recruitment. (2008) journal of biological chemistry 283:31633-31640.
  24. vince je, wong ww, khan n, feltham r*, chau d, ahmed au, benetatos ca, chunduru sk, condon sm, mckinlay m, brink r, leverkus m, tergaonkar v, schneider p, callus ba, koentgen f, vaux dl, silke j. iap antagonists target ciap1 to induce tnfalpha-dependent apoptosis. (2007) cell. 131:682-693. *equal 2nd author

Reviews

  1. magtoto cm, feltham r. (2021) k29/k48-branched ubiquitin chains trip the alarm fueling neo-substrate degradation via the crl2 vhl. molecular cell
  2. simpson ds, gabrielyan a, feltham r. (2020) ripk1 ubiquitination: evidence, correlations and the undefined. seminars in cell & developmental biology
  3. feltham r, vince je. ion man: gsdmd punches pores to knock out cgas (2018). immunity
  4. feltham r, silke j. the small molecule that packs a punch: ubiquitin-mediated regulation of ripk1/fadd/caspase-8 complexes. (2017) cell death and differentiation.
  5. feltham r, vince je, lawlor ke. – caspase-8: not so silently deadly. (2017) clinical translational immunology
  6. feltham r, webb, ai, silke, j. spata2 – keeping the tnf signal short and sweet. (2016) embo news and views
  7. feltham r and silke j. iaps and ubiquitylation. (2012) iubmb

Lab research projects

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