Research at Curtin

Introduction

Professor Rackham gained his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate in Biochemistry at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. In 2003 Oliver relocated to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK, as an MRC Career Development Fellow, working with Professor Jason Chin on approaches to systematically re-engineer the genetic code.

Oliver established his own group in WA in 2006 as an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow. Since then he has been awarded a Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship, the Marshall Medal, and was inducted into the European Inventor Hall of Fame. Oliver joined Curtin University and the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute in 2019 and his research is currently funded by grants from the ARC, Cancer Council WA, and NHMRC. He was a founding member and past President of Synthetic Biology Australasia.

Research Interests

Oliver’s research interests are in engineering and understanding mammalian gene expression. His research group uses synthetic biology and genomic technologies to develop new tools and therapeutics to target cancer, mitochondrial diseases and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Publications

2020

Wallis, C. P., L. H. Scott, A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2020. "Manipulating and elucidating mitochondrial gene expression with engineered proteins." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 375 (1790)
Scott, L. H., J. C. Mathews, A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2020. "Building artificial genetic circuits to understand protein function." In Methods in Enzymology, 231-250
Ferreira, N., C. E. Andoniou, K. L. Perks, J. A. Ermer, D. L. Rudler, G. Rossetti, A. Periyakaruppiah, J. K. Y. Wong, O. Rackham, P. G. Noakes, and 2 more contributors. 2020. "Murine cytomegalovirus infection exacerbates complex IV deficiency in a model of mitochondrial disease." PLoS Genetics 16 (3)
Rudler, D. L., L. A. Hughes, H. M. Viola, L. C. Hool, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2020. "Fidelity and coordination of mitochondrial protein synthesis in health and disease." Journal of Physiology
Lee, R. G., J. Gao, S. J. Siira, A. M. Shearwood, J. A. Ermer, V. Hofferek, J. C. Mathews, M. Zheng, G. E. Reid, O. Rackham, and 1 more contributors. 2020. "Cardiolipin is required for membrane docking of mitochondrial ribosomes and protein synthesis." Journal of cell science 133 (14)

2019

Kuznetsova, I., A. Lugmayr, S. J. Siira, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2019. "CirGO: An alternative circular way of visualising gene ontology terms." BMC Bioinformatics 20 (1)
Vos, P. D., P. J. Leedman, A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2019. "Modulation of miRNA function by natural and synthetic RNA-binding proteins in cancer." Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 76 (19): 3745-3752.
Ferreira, N., K. L. Perks, G. Rossetti, D. L. Rudler, L. A. Hughes, J. A. Ermer, L. H. Scott, I. Kuznetsova, T. R. Richman, V. K. Narayana, and 8 more contributors. 2019. "Stress signaling and cellular proliferation reverse the effects of mitochondrial mistranslation." EMBO Journal 38 (24)
Nicholls, T. J., H. Spåhr, S. Jiang, S. J. Siira, C. Koolmeister, S. Sharma, J. H. K. Kauppila, M. Jiang, V. Kaever, O. Rackham, and 5 more contributors. 2019. "Dinucleotide Degradation by REXO2 Maintains Promoter Specificity in Mammalian Mitochondria." Molecular Cell 76 (5): 784-796.e6.
Rudler, D. L., L. A. Hughes, K. L. Perks, T. R. Richman, I. Kuznetsova, J. A. Ermer, L. N. Abudulai, A. M. J. Shearwood, H. M. Viola, L. C. Hool, and 3 more contributors. 2019. "Fidelity of translation initiation is required for coordinated respiratory complex assembly." Science Advances 5 (12)

2018

2017

Kuznetsova, I., A. Filipovska, O. Rackham, A. Lugmayr, and A. Holzinger. 2017. "Circularized Visualisation of Genetic Interactions." In International World Wide Web Conference, Apr 3, 2017, Perth, Australia: International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee.
Perks, K. L., N. Ferreira, T. R. Richman, J. A. Ermer, I. Kuznetsova, A. M. J. Shearwood, R. G. Lee, H. M. Viola, V. P. A. Johnstone, V. Matthews, and 3 more contributors. 2017. "Adult-onset obesity is triggered by impaired mitochondrial gene expression." Science Advances 3 (8)
Siira, S. J., H. Spåhr, A. M. J. Shearwood, B. Ruzzenente, N. G. Larsson, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2017. "LRPPRC-mediated folding of the mitochondrial transcriptome." Nature Communications 8 (1)
Kuznetsova, I., S. J. Siira, A. M. J. Shearwood, J. A. Ermer, A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2017. "Simultaneous processing and degradation of mitochondrial RNAs revealed by circularized RNA sequencing." Nucleic Acids Research 45 (9): 5487-5500.
Siira, S. J., A. M. J. Shearwood, C. P. Bracken, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2017. "Defects in RNA metabolism in mitochondrial disease." International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology 85: 106-113.

2016

Azmanov, D. N., S. J. Siira, T. Chamova, A. Kaprelyan, V. Guergueltcheva, A. M. J. Shearwood, G. Liu, B. Morar, O. Rackham, M. Bynevelt, and 6 more contributors. 2016. "Transcriptome-wide effects of a POLR3A gene mutation in patients with an unusual phenotype of striatal involvement." Human molecular genetics 25 (19): 4302-4314.
Rackham, O., J. D. Busch, S. Matic, S. J. Siira, I. Kuznetsova, I. Atanassov, J. A. Ermer, A. M. J. Shearwood, T. R. Richman, J. B. Stewart, and 4 more contributors. 2016. "Hierarchical RNA Processing Is Required for Mitochondrial Ribosome Assembly." Cell Reports 16 (7): 1874-1890.
Spåhr, H., A. Rozanska, X. Li, I. Atanassov, R. N. Lightowlers, Z. M. A. Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, O. Rackham, and N. G. Larsson. 2016. "SLIRP stabilizes LRPPRC via an RRM-PPR protein interface." Nucleic Acids Research 44 (14): 6868-6882.
Richman, T. R., H. Spahr, J. A. Ermer, S. M. K. Davies, H. M. Viola, K. A. Bates, J. Papadimitriou, L. C. Hool, J. Rodger, N. G. Larsson, and 2 more contributors. 2016. "Loss of the RNA-binding protein TACO1 causes late-onset mitochondrial dysfunction in mice." Nature Communications 7

2015

Duff, R. M., A. M. J. Shearwood, J. Ermer, G. Rosseti, R. Gooding, T. R. Richman, S. Balasubramaniam, D. R. Thorburn, O. Rackham, P. J. Lamont, and 1 more contributors. 2015. "A mutation in MT-TW causes a tRNA processing defect and reduced mitochondrial function in a family with Leigh syndrome." Mitochondrion 25: 113-119.
Richman, T. R., J. A. Ermer, S. M. K. Davies, K. L. Perks, H. M. Viola, A. M. J. Shearwood, L. C. Hool, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2015. "Mutation in MRPS34 Compromises Protein Synthesis and Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction." PLoS Genetics 11 (3)
Lopez Sanchez, M. I. G., A. M. J. Shearwood, T. Chia, S. M. K. Davies, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2015. "Estrogen-mediated regulation of mitochondrial gene expression." Molecular Endocrinology 29 (1): 14-27.
Scott, L., M. Razif, A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2015. "Engineering APOBEC3G enzymes for altered specificity and processivity." In 29th Annual Symposium of the Protein-Society, Jul 22, 2015, Barcelona, SPAIN: WILEY-BLACKWELL.

2014

Coquille, S., A. Filipovska, T. Chia, L. Rajappa, J. P. Lingford, M. F. M. Razif, S. Thore, and O. Rackham. 2014. "An artificial PPR scaffold for programmable RNA recognition." Nature Communications 5
Rackham, O., and A. Filipovska. 2014. "Analysis of the human mitochondrial transcriptome using directional deep sequencing and parallel analysis of RNA ends." In Methods in Molecular Biology, 263-275
Richman, T. R., S. M. K. Davies, A. M. J. Shearwood, J. A. Ermer, L. H. Scott, M. E. Hibbs, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2014. "A bifunctional protein regulates mitochondrial protein synthesis." Nucleic Acids Research 42 (9): 5483-5494.
Rackham, O., and A. Filipovska. 2014. "Supernumerary proteins of mitochondrial ribosomes." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - General Subjects 1840 (4): 1227-1232.
Richman, T. R., O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2014. "Mitochondria: Unusual features of the mammalian mitoribosome." International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology 53: 115-120.
Rackham, O. 2014. "Artificial protein scaffolds for programmable RNA recognition." In FEBS EMBO 2014 Conference, Aug 30, 2014, Paris, FRANCE: WILEY-BLACKWELL.

2013

Small, I. D., O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2013. "Organelle transcriptomes: Products of a deconstructed genome." Current Opinion in Microbiology 16 (5): 652-658.
Liu, G., T. R. Mercer, A. M. J. Shearwood, S. J. Siira, M. E. Hibbs, J. S. Mattick, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2013. "Mapping of mitochondrial RNA-protein interactions by digital rnase footprinting." Cell Reports 5 (3): 839-848.
Thyer, R., A. Filipovska, and O. Rackham. 2013. "Engineered rRNA enhances the efficiency of selenocysteine incorporation during translation." Journal of the American Chemical Society 135 (1): 2-5.
Filipovska, A., and O. Rackham. 2013. "Pentatricopeptide repeats: Modular blocks for building RNA-binding proteins." RNA Biology 10 (9): 1426-1432.
Filipovska, A., and O. Rackham. 2013. "Specialization from synthesis: How ribosome diversity can customize protein function." FEBS Letters 587 (8): 1189-1197.
Richman, T. R., L. Scott, S. M. K. Davies, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2013. "The role of an unconventional ribosomal protein in mitochondrial function.": ELSEVIER SCI LTD.

2012

Jablensky, A., D. Angelicheva, G. J. Donohoe, M. Cruickshank, D. N. Azmanov, D. W. Morris, A. McRae, C. S. Weickert, K. W. Carter, D. Chandler, and 19 more contributors. 2012. "Promoter polymorphisms in two overlapping 6p25 genes implicate mitochondrial proteins in cognitive deficit in schizophrenia." Molecular Psychiatry 17 (12): 1328-1339.
Davies, S. M. K., M. I. G. Lopez Sanchez, R. Narsai, A. M. J. Shearwood, M. F. M. Razif, I. D. Small, J. Whelan, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2012. "MRPS27 is a pentatricopeptide repeat domain protein required for the translation of mitochondrially encoded proteins." FEBS Letters 586 (20): 3555-3561.
Rackham, O., T. R. Mercer, and A. Filipovska. 2012. "The human mitochondrial transcriptome and the rna-binding proteins that regulate its expression." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: RNA 3 (5): 675-695.
Passon, D. M., M. Lee, O. Rackham, W. A. Stanley, A. Sadowska, A. Filipovska, A. H. Fox, and C. S. Bond. 2012. "Structure of the heterodimer of human NONO and paraspeckle protein component 1 and analysis of its role in subnuclear body formation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (13): 4846-4850.
Filipovska, A., and O. Rackham. 2012. "Modular recognition of nucleic acids by PUF, TALE and PPR proteins." Molecular BioSystems 8 (3): 699-708.
Rackham, O., and A. Filipovska. 2012. "The role of mammalian PPR domain proteins in the regulation of mitochondrial gene expression." BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-GENE REGULATORY MECHANISMS 1819 (9-10): 1008-1016.
Rackham, O., M. Razif, K. Nygard, and A. Filipovska. 2012. "A universal code for RNA-protein recognition." In 26th Annual Symposium of the Protein-Society, Aug 5, 2012, San Diego, CA: WILEY-BLACKWELL.

2011

Lopez Sanchez, M. I. G., T. R. Mercer, S. M. K. Davies, A. M. J. Shearwood, K. K. A. Nygård, T. R. Richman, J. S. Mattick, O. Rackham, and A. Filipovska. 2011. "RNA processing in human mitochondria." Cell Cycle 10 (17): 2904-2916.
Rackham, O., A. M. J. Shearwood, T. R. Mercer, S. M. K. Davies, J. S. Mattick, and A. Filipovska. 2011. "Long noncoding RNAs are generated from the mitochondrial genome and regulated by nuclear-encoded proteins." RNA 17 (12): 2085-2093.
Rackham, O., A. M. J. Shearwood, R. Thyer, E. McNamara, S. M. K. Davies, B. A. Callus, A. Miranda-Vizuete, S. J. Berners-Price, Q. Cheng, E. S. J. Arnér, and 1 more contributors. 2011. "Substrate and inhibitor specificities differ between human cytosolic and mitochondrial thioredoxin reductases: Implications for development of specific inhibitors." Free Radical Biology and Medicine 50 (6): 689-699.
Filipovska, A., M. F. M. Razif, K. K. A. NygÅrd, and O. Rackham. 2011. "A universal code for RNA recognition by PUF proteins." Nature Chemical Biology 7 (7): 425-427.
Mercer, T. R., S. Neph, M. E. Dinger, J. Crawford, M. A. Smith, A. M. J. Shearwood, E. Haugen, C. P. Bracken, O. Rackham, J. A. Stamatoyannopoulos, and 2 more contributors. 2011. "The human mitochondrial transcriptome." Cell 146 (4): 645-658.
Filipovska, A., and O. Rackham. 2011. "Designer RNA-binding proteins New tools for manipulating the transcriptome." RNA BIOLOGY 8 (6): 978-983.

2010

Carrie, C., E. Giraud, O. Duncan, L. Xu, Y. Wang, S. Huang, R. Clifton, M. Murcha, A. Filipovska, O. Rackham, and 2 more contributors. 2010. "Conserved and novel functions for Arabidopsis thaliana MIA40 in assembly of proteins in mitochondria and peroxisomes." Journal of Biological Chemistry 285 (46): 36138-36148.

2009

Davies, S. M. K., O. Rackham, A. M. J. Shearwood, K. L. Hamilton, R. Narsai, J. Whelan, and A. Filipovska. 2009. "Pentatricopeptide repeat domain protein 3 associates with the mitochondrial small ribosomal subunit and regulates translation." FEBS Letters 583 (12): 1853-1858.
Rackham, O., S. M. K. Davies, A. M. J. Shearwood, K. L. Hamilton, J. Whelan, and A. Filipovska. 2009. "Pentatricopeptide repeat domain protein 1 lowers the levels of mitochondrial leucine tRNAs in cells." Nucleic Acids Research 37 (17): 5859-5867.

2008

Filipovska, A., and O. Rackham. 2008. "Building a parallel metabolism within the cell." ACS Chemical Biology 3 (1): 51-63.

2007

Rackham, O., S. J. Nichols, P. J. Leedman, S. J. Berners-Price, and A. Filipovska. 2007. "A gold(I) phosphine complex selectively induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells: Implications for anticancer therapeutics targeted to mitochondria." Biochemical Pharmacology 74 (7): 992-1002.

2006

Rackham, O., K. Wang, and J. W. Chin. 2006. "Functional epitopes at the ribosome subunit interface." Nature Chemical Biology 2 (5): 254-258.
Rackham, O., and J. W. Chin. 2006. "Synthesizing cellular networks from evolved ribosome-mRNA pairs." Biochemical Society Transactions 34 (2): 328-329.

2005

Rackham, O., and J. W. Chin. 2005. "Cellular logic with orthogonal ribosomes." Journal of the American Chemical Society 127 (50): 17584-17585.
Rackham, O., and J. W. Chin. 2005. "A network of orthogonal ribosome·mrna pairs." Nature Chemical Biology 1 (3): 159-166.

2004

Rackham, O., and C. M. Brown. 2004. "Visualization of RNA-protein interactions in living cells: FMRP and IMP1 interact on mRNAs." EMBO Journal 23 (16): 3346-3355.

2002

Jacobs, G. H., O. Rackham, P. A. Stockwell, W. Tate, and C. M. Brown. 2002. "Transterm: A database of mRNAs and translational control elements." Nucleic Acids Research 30 (1): 310-311.

Professor Oliver Rackham