Download Zoia Stoytcheva

Zoia Stoytcheva
PhD - Czech Academy of Sciences
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Stoytcheva is an Assistant Professor in Institute for
Biogenesis Research, Department of Anatomy,
Biochemistry, and Physiology at John A. Burns School of
Medicine, University of Hawaii.
She received her M.Sc., in Molecular Biology from Sofia
State University. Her scientific career began at the
Institute of Microbiology (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
researching the secondary metabolism of Streptomycetes.
She was a member of a team that generated 2 new
antibiotic-producing strains and co-authored two Patents
for production of the antibiotic compounds apramycin and
tobramycin.
She obtained her PhD from the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, while studying WDregulatory proteins in Streptomycetes.
Her first postdoctoral years were at Harvard, conducting research on translational regulation of
the selenoprotein P. Following her mentor Dr. Marla Berry, she relocated to Hawaii in 2002 as a
postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hawaii.
She broadened her research focus to include transcriptional regulation of gene expression after
attending an intensive training course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. As a result, she
successfully administered a project to analyze over 50 gene promoters, and experimentally
validated several predicted transcription factors regulating selenoprotein expression. She
discovered the function of selenoprotein SelH as being a transcription factor and identified the
DNA sequences that it binds.
In 2009, she joined the Institute for Biogenesis Research (IBR) as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr.
Monika Ward’s laboratory where she analyzed the protamine expression and spermatogenesis in
transgenic mice with limited Y chromosome complements. The latter work was recently published
in Science magazine.
Her newly-acquired experience with mouse models was augmented while working at the
Transgenic Core Facility at the Institute for Biogenesis Research. As a molecular specialist at the
Transgenic Core, she designed and generated vectors for production of transgenic mice, and
validated efficient integration of transgenes.
She has extensive molecular biology expertise including (but not limited to) all aspects of DNA,
RNA and protein manipulations, expression profiling, gene silencing, investigating RNA-protein,
DNA-protein and protein-protein interactions and polysome analysis.
Her current research interests are: regulation and role of the transcription factor Six2 in
development, construction of BAC vectors for transgenesis and gene therapy, role of
selenoproteins in human health, and development and transcriptional regulation of gene
expression.
Some Recent/Representative Publications
•
Yamauchi Y., Riel J. M., Stoytcheva Z., & Ward M. A. “Only two Y chromosome encoded
genes are needed for successful reproduction in the mouse”. Science, 2014, vol. 343
(6166): p 69-72.
•
Marh J., Stoytcheva Z., Urschitz J., Sugawara , Yamashiro H., Owens J., Stoytchev I.,
Pelczarc P., Yanagimachi R., & Moisyadi S. “Hyperactive self-inactivating piggyBac for
transposase-enhanced pronuclear microinjection transgenesis”. PNAS, 2012, vol. 109
(47), p 19184–19189
•
Owens J. B., Urschitz J., Stoytchev I., Dang N. C., Stoytcheva Z., Belcaid M.,
Kommineni J. M., Coates C.J., Segal David J. & Moisyadi, S. “Chimeric piggyBac
transposases for genomic targeting in human cells”. Nucl. Acids Res.2012, 40 (14): 69786991.
•
Yamauchi Y., Riel J.M., Stoytcheva Z., Burgoyne P.S., & Ward M. A. “Deficiency in Y
chromosome long arm gene complement is associated with sperm DNA damage”.
Genome Biol. 2010, 11(6):R66.
•
Stoytcheva Z., Vladimirov V., Douet V., Stoytchev I., & Berry M. J. “Metal transcription
factor-1 regulation via MREs in transcribed regions of selenoprotein H and other metalresponsive genes” BBA - General Subjects, 2010, 1800, p416-424.
•
Stoytcheva Z. & Berry M. “Transcriptional regulation of mammalian selenoprotein
expression”. BBA - General Subjects, 2009, 1790, p1429-1440.
•
Panee, J.*, Stoytcheva Z*(co first author), Wanyu Liu, and Berry M. J.
“Selenoprotein H is a redox-sensing HMG family DNA-binding protein that upregulates
genes involved in glutathione synthesis and phase II detoxification”; JBC, 2007, 282,
(33): 23759–23765.
•
Stoytcheva Z., Tujebajeva R., Harney J.W., & Berry M. J. “Efficient Incorporation of
Multiple Selenocysteines Involves an Inefficient Decoding Step Serving as a Potential
Translational Checkpoint and Ribosome Bottleneck”. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2006; 26 (24):
9177-9184
•
Small-Howard A., Morozova N., Stoytcheva Z., Forry E., Mansell J., Harney J., Carlson
B., Xu X., Hatfield D. L. & Berry M. J. “Supramolecular complexes mediate selenocysteine
incorporation in vivo”. Mol. Cell. Biol., 2006; 26 (6): 2337–2346
•
Stoytcheva Z., Joshi B., Spižek J., and Tichy P. “WD-repeat protein encoding genes
among Prokaryotes of the Streptomyces genus”. Folia Microbiol. 2000; 45 (5): 407-13