Nathan Schembri Rodgers

EDUCATION

College / University

University of Malta

Highest Degree

Bachelor of Science

Major Subjects

Medical Biochemistry

Country

Malta

Lab Experience

Molecular Cloning in Escherichia coli (Polymerase chain reaction, restriction digestion, ligation, transformation, plasmid extraction, agarose gel electrophoretic analysis of PCR), the yeast-two hybrid assay and the liquid culture β-Galactosidase assay

Projects / Research

2023 – 2024: Undergraduate thesis project “Analysis of EHMT2 Interactor Isolation Success Using the Minimal Binding Region”; Allied Research Unit Laboratories of the Centre of Molecular Medicine and Biobanking at the University of Malta, supervised by Prof. Byron Baron
2019: GO4 Research Student Internship at the department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Science at the University of Malta on the “Cocrystal Screening of the Anti-Cancer Drug Paclitaxel”, under the supervision of Dr. Liana Vella-Żarb

Scholarships / Awards

2024 – 2025:

Stipend by the International Max Planck Research School

SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS AND GOALS

Throughout my time as an undergraduate student, I have found that my main interests include metabolic biochemistry, cell signaling, gene expression and epigenetics. The latter took on a more central position as my dissertation was based on a protein lysine methyltransferase whose histone and non-histone substrates enable it to influence gene expression as both a corepressor and coactivator. The role of epigenetics in regulating DNA-template-based processes, such as gene expression, and consequently cellular behavior, is of great interest to me, particularly in its role in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, and in the process of ageing. That being said, I am eager to learn more as a student of the Molecular Biology Program at the University of Göttingen and to expand my horizons.