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SHORT RÉSUMÉ
 
Reika Watanabe received a PhD in medical sciences from the Osaka University , Research institute for microbial diseases in 1999. She then worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Osaka University (1999-2000), at the Biozentrum, University of Basle (2000-2002), and in the Department of biochemistry of the University of Geneva (2002-2005). In 2005, she became an independent post-doctoral research fellow supported by the Programme Marie Heim-Vögtlin fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNRS). In 2007, she becomes assistant Professor (FNRS professorship).

TEACHING ACTIVITIES
 
Professor Watanabe teaches and organises practical courses of biochemistry to the 3rd year BSc students in biology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
 
The research team of Professor Watanabe is interested in understanding the mechanisms and regulation of the transport of secretory and transmembrane proteins in mammalian cells.
After they are synthesised in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), these proteins arrive at the Golgi apparatus and then reach their final destinations. Their transport is mainly mediated by small vesicles which bud from donor compartments and fuse with acceptor compartments; their formation requires the coat protein complex (COPII).
In order to determine if the COPII-vesicles are the only type of vesicles required for ER to Golgi transport of such different cargo proteins, and how ER exit is regulated and achieved, the team of Doctor Watanabe focuses on two classes of proteins: Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins, and Kv4-family transient potassium channel proteins.

AWARD
 
2007 : Assistant professorship of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

THE 5 KEY REFERENCES OF PROFESSOR WATANABE
 
R. Watanabe, G. A. Castillon, A. Meury and H. Riezman (2008).
The presence of an ER Exit Signal Determines the Protein Sorting upon ER Exit in Yeast.
Biochem. J., in press.
 
K. Kajiwara, R. Watanabe, H. Pichler, K. Ihara, S. Murakami, H. Riezman and K. Funato (2008).
Yeast ARV1 Is Required for Efficient Delivery of an Early GPI Intermediate to the First Mannosyltransferase during GPI Assembly and Controls Lipid Flow from the Endoplasmic Reticulum.
Mol. Biol. Cell, 19, 2069-2082.
 
T. Houjou, J. Hayakawa, R. Watanabe, Y. Tashima, Y. Maeda, T. Kinoshita and R. Taguchi (2007).
Changes in Molecular Species Profiles of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchor Precursors in Early Stages of Biosynthesis.
J. Lipid. Res., 48, 1599-1606.
 
R. Watanabe and H. Riezman (2004).
Differential ER Exit in Yeast and Mammalian Cells.
Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 16, 350-355.
 
A.K. Sobering, R. Watanabe, M.J. Romeo, B.C. Yan, C.A. Specht, P. Orlean, H. Riezman and D.E. Levin (2004).
Yeast Ras Regulates the Complex that Catalyzes the First Step in GPI-Anchor Biosynthesis at the ER.
Cell, 117, 637-648.