Frontiers of Science

February 27^th at 12:00
Onsite event
in Presidentti auditorium, BioCity
Spring 2025 program

Prof. Brett Nixon, The University of Newcastle; Hunter Medical Research Institute, Australia
Understanding the origins of health, pathology and infertility through the sperm epigenome
Host: Petra Sipilä (petra.sipila@utu.fi)

Coffee and sandwich at 11:45, first come first served!

Six PhD researchers and early-career postdocs are welcome to have a lunch and discuss with Prof. Nixon after the seminar. This is a great possibility to learn hosting skills in a friendly environment and create connections for future. Everyone is welcome to join, BioCity Turku will offer the lunch.

If you got interested, please send an email to biocityturku@bioscience.fi

Professor Brett Nixon is a Senior Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and a Professor of Biology at The University of Newcastle, Australia. In this position, he serves as Director of the Priority Research Centre for Reproductive Science and of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Infertility and Reproduction Research Program. He has conducted research activity at the basic biology / clinical andrology interface, gaining insights into how sperm gain the function required to fertilise an egg, and how these processes become disrupted in cases of male infertility. His research also focuses on the mechanisms by which environmental and lifestyle factors impact sperm quality and the consequences of such changes for embryo development. Prof. Nixon’s research models focus primarily on the male germline, but the implications of this research are of direct relevance to our understanding of cell biology more broadly. A defining feature of his research has been the application of advanced mass spectrometry and next-generation sequencing technologies to dissect changes in the proteomic and epigenomic (small non-coding RNA) landscape of sperm cells elicited by various environmental stressors. This work has made important contributions to our mechanistic knowledge of the pathways that both germ cells and their somatic support cells engage in responding to stressors such as xenobiotics, oxidative stress, heat stress, and chemotherapeutic agents. His current research focuses on the mechanisms by which environmental and lifestyle factors impact sperm epigenome and the consequences of such changes for embryo development. A particular focus for his current work is to translate this knowledge into rational therapeutic interventions that mitigate the risk of cellular damage and prevent sperm dysfunction.

Selected publications

Trigg N, Schjenken JE, Martin JH, Skerrett-Byrne DA, Smyth SP, Bernstein IR, Anderson AL, Stanger SJ, Simpson ENA, Tomar A, Teperino R, Conine CC, De Iuliis GN, Roman SD, Bromfield EG, Dun MD, Eamens AL, Nixon B. Subchronic elevation in ambient temperature drives alterations to the sperm epigenome and accelerates early embryonic development in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Nov 19;121(47):e2409790121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2409790121.

Skerrett-Byrne DA, Anderson AL, Bromfield EG, Bernstein IR, Mulhall JE, Schjenken JE, Dun MD, Humphrey SJ, Nixon B. Global profiling of the proteomic changes associated with the post-testicular maturation of mouse spermatozoa. Cell Rep. 2022 Nov 15;41(7):111655. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111655.

Trigg NA, Skerrett-Byrne DA, Xavier MJ, Zhou W, Anderson AL, Stanger SJ, Katen AL, De Iuliis GN, Dun MD, Roman SD, Eamens AL, Nixon B. Acrylamide modulates the mouse epididymal proteome to drive alterations in the sperm small non-coding RNA profile and dysregulate embryo development. Cell Rep. 2021 Oct 5;37(1):109787. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109787.

Xavier MJ, Roman SD, Aitken RJ, Nixon B. Transgenerational inheritance: how impacts to the epigenetic and genetic information of parents affect offspring health. Hum Reprod Update. 2019 Sep 11;25(5):518-540. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmz017.

Zhou W, Stanger SJ, Anderson AL, Bernstein IR, De Iuliis GN, McCluskey A, McLaughlin EA, Dun MD, Nixon B. Mechanisms of tethering and cargo transfer during epididymosome-sperm interactions. BMC Biol. 2019 Apr 18;17(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12915-019-0653-5. IF 7.4

General information

• You can download and save all the spring 2025 FoS-seminars to your calendar from here: https://seafile.utu.fi/d/44a70f80ac1e46a9ad0a/
• Registration is not needed, participation list is circulated in the audience
• If you are a student and later wish to get a certificate of attendance from the Frontier of Science seminars, print out the seminar diary and after the seminar ask the BioCity coordinator to sign it https://seafile.utu.fi/d/44a70f80ac1e46a9ad0a/
• Please note that any audio or video recording of the seminars is strictly forbidden.
• Spring 2025 image credits to Teemu Tuominen: Close up photograph of soil bacteria Streptomyces colonies border.