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Dr Alexander Lorenz

Dr Alexander Lorenz
Dr Alexander Lorenz
Dr Alexander Lorenz

FHEA

Senior Lecturer

About
Email Address
a.lorenz@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 437323
Office Address

The Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS)

School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition

University of Aberdeen

Foresterhill

Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD

United Kingdom

 

Office: IMS, Room 4:20

Lab: IMS, Room 4:08

School/Department
School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Linkedin
ResearchGate
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Personal Website

Biography

Since 2021: Senior Lecturer in Fungal Genetics; School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition; University of Aberdeen, UK

2013-2021: Lecturer in Molecular Cell Biology; School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition; University of Aberdeen, UK

2007-2013: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK

2005-2007: Erwin Schrödinger-Fellow of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) researching at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK

2003-2005: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Chromosome Biology, University of Vienna, Austria

1992-2003: Studying Botany and Genetics at the University of Vienna, Austria and at the University of Cologne, Germany

Qualifications

  • PhD Genetics 
    2003 - University of Vienna, Austria 
    with distinction
  • MRes Botany 
    2000 - University of Vienna, Austria 
    with distinction
  • FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) 
    2025 - Advance HE, UK 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

Programme Lead [Degree Coordinator] for BSc Molecular and Cellular Biology (since 05/2024)

Programme Lead [Degree Coordinator] for BSc Biotechnology (since 06/2025)

Programme Lead [Degree Coordinator] for BSc Microbiology (since 06/2025)

Chair of BSc Curriculum Review Workstream A - Molecular  (since 11/2025)

Foresterhill Biological Safety Committee: Chair (01/2023-12/2025), Biological Safety Officer (01/2016-12/2025), Member (10/2014-12/2025)

Health & Safety Committee of the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition: Member (12/2024-12/2025)

IMS BSc Review Workstream 4 - Workload: Member (03/2022-11/2022)

External Memberships

Member of the following learned societies:

BMSGenetics Society UKMicrobiology Society UK

Honorary Treasurer of the Genetics Society (05/2021-11/2025)

Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member: Critical Reviews in Microbiology (since 2020), FEMS Yeast Research (since 2021), Microbiological Research (2019-2025)

Ad hoc reviewer for international research journals: Biomolecules; BMC Genomics; Cellular Microbiology; Chromosoma; Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal; Current Genetics; Emerging Microbes & Infections; Evolution, Medicine & Public Health; FEMS Yeast Research; Folia Microbiologica; Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology; Frontiers in Microbiology; Fungal Biology; Fungal Biology Reviews; G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics; Gene; Genes; Genetics; Genome; GERMS; Heliyon; Heredity; International Journal of Molecular Sciences; iScience; Journal of Cell Science; Journal of Fungi; Journal of Medical Microbiology; The Lancet Microbe; Microbiological Research; Microbiology Spectrum; Microorganisms; mSphere; Nature Communications; Nature Structural & Molecular Biology; Nucleic Acids Research; Open Biology; PLoS Genetics; PLoS ONE; PLoS Pathogens; Review Commons; Scientific Reports; Theoretical and Applied Genetics

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Grant reviewer: Academia Sinica|Taiwan, ANR|France, BBSRC|UK, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland|UK, ERA-CAPS|European Union, Israel Science Foundation|Israel, MRC|UK, NSF|USA, NWO|Netherlands, RGC of Hong Kong|China, SRDA-APVV|Slovakia, Wellcome Trust|UK

Research

Research Overview

http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/a.lorenz/pages/research.html

Research Areas

Biomedical Sciences

Supervising
View Research Area

Research Specialisms

  • Genetics
  • Microbiology
  • Mycology

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Past Research

Pelletier C, Shaw S, Alsayegh S, Brown AJP, Lorenz A (2024) Candida auris undergoes adhesin-dependent and -independent cellular aggregation. - PLoS Pathogens 20 (3): e1012076 (27pp.)

Bravo Ruiz G, Ross ZK, Gow NAR, Lorenz A (2020) Pseudohyphal growth of the emerging pathogen Candida auris is triggered by genotoxic stress through the S phase checkpoint. - mSphere 5 (2): e00151-20 (17pp.)

Brown SD*, Mpaulo SJ*, Asogwa MN, Jézéquel M, Whitby MC, Lorenz A (2019) DNA sequence differences are determinants of meiotic recombination outcome. - Scientific Reports 9: 16446 (10pp.) (*these authors contributed equally)

Bravo Ruiz G, Ross ZK, Holmes E, Schelenz S, Gow NAR, Lorenz A (2019) Rapid and extensive karyotype diversification in haploid clinical Candida auris isolates. - Current Genetics 65 (5): 1217-1228

Lorenz A, Mehats A, Osman F, Whitby MC (2014) Rad51/Dmc1 paralogs and mediators oppose DNA helicases to limit hybrid DNA formation and promote crossovers during meiotic recombination. - Nucleic Acids Research 42 (22): 13723-13735

Lorenz A, Osman F, Sun W, Nandi S, Steinacher R, Whitby MC (2012) The fission yeast FANCM ortholog directs non-crossover recombination during meiosis. - Science (New York, N.Y.) 336 (6088): 1585-1588

 

 Full Publication list with links to PDFs

 

Collaborations

Professor Kouji Hirota, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan 

Dr Takashi Kubota, The Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK

Professor Adele Marston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK

Dr Hajime Murakami, The Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK

Professor Matthew Whitby, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK

Supervision

My current supervision areas are: Biomedical Sciences.

Sakinah Alsayegh, PhD in Molecular Microbiology 2019-2025 "Morphogenetic switching and antimicrobial resistance in Candida auris"

Chloe Pelletier, PhD in Medical Mycology 2019-2023 "Stress response and virulence in Candida auris"

Inês Dias Rebelo, MRes in Molecular Biology 2018-2019 "Epigenetics and meiotic recombination in Schizosaccharomyce pombe"

Stefaniya T. Stoichkova, PhD in Microbiology 2017-2024 "Tools for the genetic manipulation of Candida auris"

Samantha J. Mpaulo, PhD in Genetics 2017-2021 "DNA double-strand break formation during meiosis"

Zoe K. Ross, MRes and PhD in Medical Mycology 2017-2020 "Genome analysis of and antimicrobial resistance in Candida auris"

Simon D. Brown, PhD in Genetics 2013-2017 "Meiotic recombination in Schizosaccharomyces pombe"

Additionally, I have supervised 11 undergraduate summer/internship students, 16 BSc Honours projects, 2 MSci Honours project, and 20 MSc/MRes degree projects.

Funding and Grants

02/2020-09/2020: Seed Corn Fund (with Prof Neil Vargesson) - Institutional Strategic Support Fund, Wellcome Trust

10/2019-10/2022: Award for a 3-year PhD-studentship - Kuwait Cultural Office UK, Ministry of Higher Education, Kuwait

10/2019-10/2022: MRC-CMM award for a 3-year PhD-studentship (with Profs Al Brown & Neil Gow) - MRC & University of Aberdeen, UK

02/2019-07/2019: Research Incentive Grant - The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

07/2018-01/2020: Seed Award in Science - Wellcome Trust

01/2018-01/2019: Research Grant - Tenovus Scotland (with Prof Neil Gow)

10/2017-10/2020: MRC-CMM award for a 3-year PhD-studentship (with Prof Neil Gow) - MRC & University of Aberdeen, UK

10/2017-10/2021: IMS award for a 4-year PhD-studentship (with Prof Neil Gow) - University of Aberdeen, UK

10/2017-10/2021: EastBio-DTP awards for two 4-year PhD-studentships (with Prof Adele Marston, University of Edinburgh) - BBSRC

06/2017-11/2017: Seed Corn Fund (with Prof Neil Gow) - Institutional Strategic Support Fund, Wellcome Trust

04/2017: One-off Meeting sponsorship (with Dr Isabelle Colas) for the 9th British Meiosis Meeting in Dundee - Genetics Society UK

06/2016-08/2016: G&D Summer studentship (for Ki Choi CHAN, University of York) - Genetics Society UK

01/2015-09/2015: Research Incentive Grant - The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

10/2014-10/2015: Research Grant - Royal Society

10/2013-10/2017: DTG award for a 4-year PhD-studentship - BBSRC & University of Aberdeen, UK

09/2013: Principal’s Excellence Fund - University of Aberdeen

07/2005-07/2007: Erwin Schrödinger-Fellowship - Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

10/1997-06/1998: ERASMUS/SOCRATES-scholarship - European Union

Teaching

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergraduate Degree Co-ordination

BSc Molecular and Cellular Biology

BSc Biotechnology

BSc Microbiology

Course Co-ordination

GN3502 - Genetics

MB3006 - Molecular Biology of the Cell

Lecturing

MB3006 - Molecular Biology of the Cell: 'Cell Cycle & Cell Division' (Lectures, Tutorial)

GN3502 - Genetics: 'Mendelian Genetics', 'Chromosome Biology', 'Fungal Genetics', 'Genetic Engineering' (Lectures)

MC3504 - Molecular Microbiology: 'Fungal Genetics and Biology' (Lectures)

MB4050 - Genome Organisation and Analysis: 'Genome Integrity - DNA Repair, Homologous Recombination, and Meiosis' (Lectures)

Practicals & Workshops

BI20M3 - Molecular Biology of the Gene: 'Restriction Analysis of DNA'

GN3502 - Genetics: 'Analysis of Meiotic Recombination'

GN3502 - Genetics: 'Pedigree Analysis'

Student Supervision

MB4502 - 'Molecular Biology Honours Research Project'

MB5904 - 'Masters Research Project'

Currently, co-supervisor of two PhD students.

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

Personal Tutor for 7 UG students in various degree programmes and at all levels

Member of 9-months and 24-months PhD student assessment panels

Publications

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