Course Tutor
Tania Nolan
Sigma-Aldrich
Tania gained a first class honours degree and then a PhD in genetics from Manchester University. She took up an AstraZeneca Fellwship to study genetic regulation in breast cancer before moving to Stratagene to support the launch of their qPCR programme. She is an internationally recognised molecular biologist with a reputation for expertise in the field of mRNA quantification using qPCR. She was a significant co-author of the specialist textbook “The A - Z of Quantitative PCR” (ed S.A. Bustin; IUL Press) and co-author of the SPUD and mRNA integrity assays. Tania is an enthusiastic teacher and regularly organises qPCR workshops throughout Europe, including those at the EMBL in Heidelberg. Recently, Tania presented a plenary lecture and chaired the “normalisation, optimisation and standardisation” session at the 3rd International qPCR meeting held in Freising. She has an active publication record and regularly contributes to the scientific literature addressing aspects of quality control of qPCR and qRT-PCR experiments.
Co-Presenters
Jim Huggett
University College London
Jim studied genetics at Liverpool University and then focused on using molecular biology to study gene expression in Osteoporosis for his PhD at Cardiff University. In 2002 he moved to London and started working with infectious disease diagnostics in the context of the developing world. Jim has pretty much worked with real time PCR for his whole career and it is through his interest in this technology that he met Tania. His work in the developing world combines state of the art research into diseases like tuberculosis with infrastructure setup and capacity development. He is a determined and thorough scientist and teacher and is committed to ensuring that scientific research performed in the developing world contributes to local infrastructure and training.
Stephen Bustin
Professor of Molecular Science, Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, University of London
Stephen Bustin obtained his PhD from Trinity College, University of Dublin in molecular genetics in 1983. He carried out post-doctoral research at the Animal Virus Research Institute in Pirbright before his interest in biotechnology led him to join Corporate Research, Amersham International, as a senior research scientist, eventually becoming research manager, gene expression. His main achievements were producing a synthetic HRP gene, generating humanised antibodies, cloning a HIV-1 strain and inventing a lyophilized reagent system for PCR. He joined the London Hospital Medical College as a senior research fellow, aiming to apply his research in a more direct, practical setting. Following promotion to Senior Lecturer (1995) and Reader in Molecular Medicine (2002) he was awarded a personal chair by the University of London in 2004.
The course presenter fees will be donated to Eureka Biotech, a Trust supporting scientific research in developing countries.