Santiago Vernia

About me

Experience:

2017 -

Present

Programme Leader Track (MRC LMS)

2016 -

2017

Career Development Award (MRC LMS)

2010 -

2015

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA)

2009 -

2010

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia, Spanish Council of Scientific Research)

2001 -

2007

PhD Clinical Biochemistry & Immunology (University of Valencia, Spain)

1999 -

2000

MSc Clinical Biochemistry & Immunology (University of Valencia, Spain)

1996 -

1999

BSc Pharmacy (University of Valencia, Spain)

Research focus:

Our research focus is on Metabolism, Liver disease, Gene Expression, RNA therapeutics, Tumour, Neurofibromatosis type 1

Joined LMS:

2016

About me:

The LMS with world-class scientists working across different disciplines was the perfect environment to combine my background in signal transduction and metabolic regulation with my growing interest in RNA splicing and RNA therapeutics. This has been key to develop our research programme and leverage on this to develop advanced tools with potential therapeutic interest such as RNA oligonucleotides or exosomes.

Impact of my work:

Our work has led to the identification of molecular mechanisms involved in metabolic regulation in health and disease. Our results show that the pre-mRNA processing plays an important - and largely unrecognized - role in metabolic regulation. We aim to leverage on these findings to develop novel RNA therapeutic approaches for liver pathologies including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

My Research

Metabolism and gene regulation

We characterise the molecular mechanisms driving metabolic homeostasis in health and in metabolic pathologies such as diabetes and obesity.

VIEW MY RESEARCH GROUP

Selected publications

Guerrero A, Herranz N, Sun B, Wagner V, Gallage S, Guiho R, Wolter K, Pombo J, Irvine EE, Innes AJ, Birch J, Glegola J, Manshaei S, Heide D, Dharmalingam G, Harbig J, Olona A, Behmoaras J, Dauch D, Uren AG, Zender L, Vernia S, Martínez-Barbera JP, Heikenwalder M, Withers DJ, Gil J. (2019). Cardiac glycosides are broad-spectrum senolytics, Nature Metabolism doi:10.1038/s42255-019-0122-z

Milona A, Massafra V, Vos H, Naik J, Artigas N, Paterson HAB, Bijsmans I, Willemsen E, Miguel-Aliaga I, Bosma P, Burgering B, Williamson C, Vernia S, Dhillo WS, van Mil S, Owen BM. (2019). ‘Steroidogenic Control of Liver Metabolism Through a Nuclear Receptor-Network‘, Mol. Endocrinology, 2019. Dec;30:221-229.

Barutcu SA, Girnius N, Vernia S, Davis RJ. (2018). Role of the MAPK/cJun NH2-terminal kinase signaling pathway in starvation-induced autophagy. Autophagy 14(9), 1586-1595. DOI:10.1080/15548627.2018.1466013.

Soltis AR, Motola S, Vernia S, Ng CW, Kennedy NJ, Dalin S, Matthews BJ, Davis RJ, Fraenkel E. (2017). Hyper-and hypo-nutrition studies of the hepatic transcriptome and epigenome suggest that PPARα regulates anaerobic glycolysis. Scientific Reports 7(1), 174.

Vernia S, Edwards YK, Han MS, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Barrett T, Kim JK, Davis RJ. (2016). An alternative splicing program promotes adipose tissue thermogenesis. eLife 5:e17672.

Tang Y, Wallace M, Sanchez-Gurmaches S, Hsiao WY, Li H, Lee P, Vernia S, Metallo C, Guertin DA. (2016). Adipose tissue mTORC2 regulates ChREBP-driven de novo lipogenesis and hepatic glucose metabolism. Nat Commun 7, 11365.

Vernia S, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Barrett T, Tournier C, Davis RJ. (2016). Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Mediates Glycemic Regulation by Hepatic JNK. Cell Rep 14(10), 2273-80.

Vernia S, Morel C, Madara J, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Barrett T, Chase K, Kennedy N, Jung DY, Kim J, Aronin N, Flavell R, Lowell BB, Davis RJ. (2016). Excitatory transmission onto AgRP neurons is regulated by cJun NH2-terminal kinase 3 in response to metabolic stress. eLife 5:e10031.

Vernia S, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Barrett T, Tournier C, Davis RJ. (2016). Fibroblast growth factor 21 mediates glycemic regulation by hepatic JNK. Cell Reports 14(10), 1-8.

Thornton TM, Delgado P, Chen L, Salas B, Krementsov D, Fernandez M, Vernia S, Davis RJ, Heimann R, Teuscher C, Krangel MS, Ramiro AR, Rincón M. (2016). Inactivation of nuclear GSK3β by Ser(389) phosphorylation promotes lymphocyte fitness during DNA double-strand break response. Nat Commun 7, 10553.

Vernia S, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Garcia-Haro L, Sabio G, Barrett T, Jung DY, Kim JK, Xu J, Shulha HP, Garber M, Gao G, Davis RJ. (2014). The PPARα-FGF21 Hormone Axis Contributes to Metabolic Regulation by the Hepatic JNK Signaling Pathway. Cell Metabolism 20(3), 1-14.

Vernia S, Cavanagh-Kyros J, Barrett T, Jung DY, Kim JK, Davis RJ. (2013). Diet-induced obesity mediated by the JNK/DIO2 signal transduction pathway. Genes and Development 27(21), 2345-55.

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