Dr
Chun
Guo

School of Biosciences

Lecturer

Dr Chun Guo
Profile picture of Dr Chun Guo
c.guo@sheffield.ac.uk
Alfred Denny Building

Full contact details

Dr Chun Guo
School of Biosciences
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank

Sheffield

S10 2TN

Profile

Brief career history

  • 2015–Present: Lecturer, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield
  • 2013–2015: Research Fellow, School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol
  • 2009–2013: Senior Research Associate, School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol
  • 2002–2009: Research Associate, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester
  • 1999–2002: PhD, Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, U.K.
  • 1996–1999: Lecturer, Department of Human Anatomy, Medical College of Soochow University, China.
  • 1991–1996: Teaching Assistant, Department of Human Anatomy, Medical College of Soochow University, China.
  • 1986–1991: MBBS, Medical College of Soochow University, China
Research interests

Protein SUMOylation and deSUMOylation in Health and Disease
My research interests are to understand the basic cell biology and signaling pathways associated with protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) in cell death, survival, and repair following stress, and to translate the findings into animal models of human diseases and into treatments for human disease.
One type of PTM is SUMOylation, which involves the attachment of a small protein called Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier (SUMO) to target proteins.
SUMOylation is essential for the survival of all plant and animal cells because it regulates protein-protein interactions, either promoting or hindering specific interactions according to the molecular environment.
Thus the functional consequences of SUMO attachment vary greatly depending on the substrate and the cell type, and in most cases remain only poorly understood.
SUMOylation can be reversed by the action of SUMO proteases to cleave the bond between proteins. This is called deSUMOylation.
The largest and most characterised family of SUMO proteases is that of the sentrin-specific proteases (SENPs). Specific targets and physiological roles for SENPs are largely unknown.
In my laboratory, a combination of techniques including molecular cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, pharmacology, and histology is used to address the roles of protein SUMOylation and deSUMOylation in health and disease, particularly in ischemia and age-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer.
The results may lead to better understanding of disease processes, more effective therapies, an enhancement to the quality of life of both patients and their carers, and finally, an easing of the substantial economic burden that ischemia and age-related diseases currently impose.

Publications

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Journal articles

Conference proceedings

Preprints

All publications

Journal articles

Conference proceedings

Preprints

Teaching activities

·         Module Lead: Level 2 (L2) Undergraduate (UG) Molecular Cell Biology (Core)

·         Instructor: L2 UG Human Neuroanatomy (Core)

·         Instructor: Level 3 (L3) UG Molecular Immunology (Core)

·         Research Supervisor: UG (L3), Postgraduate Taught (PGT), and Postgraduate Research (PGR) Projects (Core)

·         Academic Tutor: UG, PGT and PGR Tutorials

Professional activities and memberships

·         Fellow, The Anatomical Society (2026; Member since 2016)

·         Fellow, Higher Education Academy (FHEA) (2018)

·         Member, British Society for Cell Biology (since 2019)

·         Editorial Board Member: Biomolecules (since 2021) and Biomolecular Mechanisms and Innovations (since 2025)

·         Peer Reviewer for Journals: Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Autophagy, The EMBO Journal, PNAS, Redox Biology, Cell Death & Disease, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Cell Communication and Signaling, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, iScience, The FASEB Journal and Stem Cells.

·         Peer Reviewer for Funding Bodies: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, British Heart Foundation, The Royal Society, Fondazione Telethon ETS and BRACE – Alzheimer’s Research.

Links

ResearchGate  Google Scholar  Orcid