roe jung-hye


Dr Roe's research is centered around the theme of microbial response to stresses, especially oxidative ones. All living organisms exposed to air have to deal with the toxicity of oxygen, caused by reactive oxygen species. Since much of the stress responses are conserved from bacteria to human, elucidation of microbial response is expected to reveal a fundamental basic principle of life. She investigates how oxidative stress is sensed, especially through cysteine thiols and metals, and how changes in the regulatory proteins determine the response by modulating gene expression. The mechanism of oxidative sensing, global gene regulatory networks, biological significance of key response proteins, etc, are our research interests. For this purpose, she studies pathways involving sigma-antisigma factors and metal-containing transcriptional regulators in differentiating and antibiotic-producing bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor as well as in E. coli. Regulation and the role of thiol redox proteins in fission yeast are also investigated.