MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge, UK

Research

Kelly Nguyen has solved the first complete atomic model of the large RNA-containing enzyme telomerase which rebuilds the natural ends of chromosomes, the telomeres, by adding new telomeric DNA repeats with each cell division. Telomeres form a protective cap of chromosome ends and are vital for keeping the genome intact. She discovered a histone dimer as a novel telomerase subunit, suggesting a new role for histones in telomerase RNA folding and function. In mammals, telomeres are bound by shelterin, a protein complex that regulates telomerase. Kelly Nguyen’s most recent structures of telomerase interacting with subunits of shelterin reveal unprecedented insights into the molecular basis of how shelterin recruits and activates telomerase for the extension of chromosome ends. This opens new ways for finding drugs to target telomerase, for example in cancer.

Academic Career

Kelly Nguyen studied chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. She earned her PhD from the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, UK, in 2014, then moved to the University of California in Berkeley, USA, for postdoctoral research. She returned to the MRC-LMB in Cambridge in 2019 to set up her own research group. Her research has been recognized by the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators, the Suffrage Science Award curated by MRC-LMS, the Early Career Research Award, and the Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society.