Associate Professor Steven Zuryn

Principal Research Fellow - GL

Queensland Brain Institute
s.zuryn@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 66477

Overview

Dr Steven Zuryn is a molecular geneticist within the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. After training as a PhD in genetics, he undertook postdoctoral reseach at the Institut Génétique Biologie Moléculaire Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France. He now leads an international and diverse team of postdoctoral, PhD, Honours, and undergraduate investigators studying epigenetics and mitochondrial biology. His laboratory’s work focuses on the role and impact of mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and is particularly fascinated with mutations that accumulate within the mitochondria’s own genome during ageing. His research has been published in the high profile journals Science, Nature Cell Biology, and Nature Communications and has appeared in multiple mainstream media outlets. For his research, he has received multiple international prizes and fellowships, been awarded grants from the NHMRC and ARC as primary chief investigator and is generously supported as a fellow of the Stafford Fox Research Foundation. Steven is passionate about communicating the critical importance of fundamental scientific research as a long-term human endeavour.

Follow the Zuryn lab on Twitter: @zurynlab

Visit the Zuryn lab website.

Research Impacts

With life expectancies increasing around the world, neurodegenerative disorders represent an enormous disease burden on individuals, families, and society. Two forms of cellular stress are associated with practically every single age-related neurodegenerative disease: mitochondrial dysfunction, and toxicity resulting from conformationally challenged, aggregate-prone proteins. Although direct links between these factors and human disease are sometimes elusive, it is clear that such stresses ultimately lead to a decline in individual neuron function over time.

In recent research, the Zuryn lab has shown that neurodegenerative disease-associated tau and polyglutamate proteins can increase the levels of mutations in the mitochondrial genome. This is the first evidence linking the two hallmarks of nerodegeneration and provides new avenues in which to explore potential therapeutics.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

  • Onraet, Tessa and Zuryn, Steven (2024). C. elegans as a model to study mitochondrial biology and disease. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, 154 (Part A), 48-58. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2023.04.006

  • Campbell, Daniel and Zuryn, Steven (2023). The mechanisms and roles of mitochondrial dynamics in C. elegans. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, 156, 266-275. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2023.10.006

  • Dai, Chuan-Yang, Ng, Chai Chee, Hung, Grace Ching Ching, Kirmes, Ina, Hughes, Laetitia A., Du, Yunguang, Brosnan, Christopher A., Ahier, Arnaud, Hahn, Anne, Haynes, Cole M., Rackham, Oliver, Filipovska, Aleksandra and Zuryn, Steven (2023). ATFS-1 counteracts mitochondrial DNA damage by promoting repair over transcription. Nature Cell Biology, 25 (8), 1-10. doi: 10.1038/s41556-023-01192-y

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

  • Kuang, J., Zuryn, S., Valmas, N., Cha'on, U, Cui, Y.W., Cheng, Q., Tuck, A., Collins, P.J. and Ebert, P.R. (2008). Biochemical mechanisms of phosphine action and resistance. 8th International Conference on Controlled Atmosphere and Fumigation in Stored Products, Chengdu, China, 21-26 September 2008. China: Sichuan Publishing house of Science & Technology.

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Completed Supervision