Nyakuoy Yak specialises in molecular neuroscience: florescence microscopy, image analysis and visualization, single molecule imaging, lipid metabolism, membrane trafficking and secretory pathways in neurons.
Nyakuoy’s research focuses on secretory pathways, membrane trafficking and lipid metabolism in health and disease. Understanding how the nanoscale organisation of lipidated proteins that control membrane trafficking in the secretory pathway during antero- and retrograde vesicular trafficking is critical to neuronal function. Her PhD project will utilize state-of-the-art single-molecule super-resolution imaging and advanced electron microscopy, EM (such as 3D-EM) techniques.
Nyakuoy graduated from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience at University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Microbiology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology (2015-2018). She completed a Master of Philoscopy (MPhil) from the Institute of Molecular Biosciences (UQ) in 2021 with a focus on Molecular Cell Biology and Microscopy. Nyakuoy worked as a research assistant at the Queensland Brain Insitutute (2021-2022) and was awarded a Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship in 2022 to undertake a PhD in Molecular Neuroscience and utilize advanced microscopy techniques. Nyakuoy is a jointly affiliated PhD student at the University of Queensland's Queensland Brain Institute and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.
Funding
Nyakuoy's PhD is supported by various different funds:
- Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship (2023-2026): https://scholars.westpacgroup.com.au/Scholars/Profile?Id=4693
- Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) and Commonwealth Tuition Fee Offset Scholarship (2023-2026)
Key Publications
Gormal, Rachel, Meunier, Frederic, Small, Christopher, Yak, Nyakuoy, McCann, Alex, and Jiang, Anmin(2022). Syt1-SV2A nanoclustering during SV recycling. The University of Queensland. Data Collection.https://doi.org/10.48610/179a9a8
Yak, Nyakuoy (2022). Rab GTPase Regulation of Cell Surface Protrusions. MPhil Thesis, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland.https://doi.org/10.14264/407f91a