Professor SEAN MAY's Outputs (37)

Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant (2025)
Journal Article
Brady, S., Auge, G., Ayalew, M., Balasubramanian, S., Hamann, T., Inze, D., Saito, K., Brychkova, G., Berardini, T. Z., Friesner, J., Ho, C., Hauser, M., Kobayashi, M., Lepiniec, L., Mähönen, A. P., Mutwil, M., May, S., Parry, G., Rigas, S., Stepanova, A. N., …Provart, N. J. (2025). Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant. The Plant Journal, 121(5), Article e70047. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70047

Plants are essential for human survival. Over the past three decades, work with the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana has significantly advanced plant biology research. One key event was the sequencing of its genome 25 years ago, which fostered ma... Read More about Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant.

Metabolomic characterisation of the glioblastoma invasive margin reveals a region-specific signature (2024)
Journal Article
Wood, J., Smith, S. J., Castellanos-Uribe, M., Lourdusamy, A., May, S. T., Barrett, D. A., Grundy, R. G., Kim, D.-H., & Rahman, R. (2025). Metabolomic characterisation of the glioblastoma invasive margin reveals a region-specific signature. Heliyon, 11(1), Article e41309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e41309

Isocitrate dehydrogenase wild-type glioblastoma (GBM) is characterised by a heterogeneous genetic landscape resulting from dynamic competition between tumour subclones to survive selective pressures. Improvements in metabolite identification and meta... Read More about Metabolomic characterisation of the glioblastoma invasive margin reveals a region-specific signature.

Paternal low protein diet perturbs inter-generational metabolic homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner in mice (2022)
Journal Article
Morgan, H. L., Furse, S., Dias, I. H. K., Shabir, K., Castellanos, M., Khan, I., May, S. T., Holmes, N., Carlile, M., Sang, F., Wright, V., Koulman, A., & Watkins, A. J. (2022). Paternal low protein diet perturbs inter-generational metabolic homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner in mice. Communications Biology, 5(1), Article 929. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03914-8

The underlying mechanisms driving paternally-programmed metabolic disease in offspring remain poorly defined. We fed male C57BL/6 mice either a control normal protein diet (NPD; 18% protein) or an isocaloric low protein diet (LPD; 9% protein) for a m... Read More about Paternal low protein diet perturbs inter-generational metabolic homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner in mice.

The Response of the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell Transcriptome to Variation in Magnesium Concentration (2022)
Journal Article
Almousa, L. A., Salter, A. M., Castellanos, M., May, S. T., & Langley-Evans, S. C. (2022). The Response of the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell Transcriptome to Variation in Magnesium Concentration. Nutrients, 14(17), Article 3586. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14173586

Vascular endothelial cells have a critical role in the maintenance of cardiovascular function. Evidence suggests that endothelial function may be compromised under conditions of magnesium deficiency, which increases vulnerability to inflammation. Who... Read More about The Response of the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell Transcriptome to Variation in Magnesium Concentration.

Lipoprotein Deprivation Reveals a Cholesterol-Dependent Therapeutic Vulnerability in Diffuse Glioma Metabolism (2022)
Journal Article
Wood, J., Abdelrazig, S., Evseev, S., Ortori, C., Castellanos-Uribe, M., May, S. T., Barrett, D. A., Diksin, M., Chakraborty, S., Kim, D. H., Grundy, R. G., & Rahman, R. (2022). Lipoprotein Deprivation Reveals a Cholesterol-Dependent Therapeutic Vulnerability in Diffuse Glioma Metabolism. Cancers, 14(16), Article 3873. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14163873

Poor outcomes associated with diffuse high-grade gliomas occur in both adults and children, despite substantial progress made in the molecular characterisation of the disease. Targeting the metabolic requirements of cancer cells represents an alterna... Read More about Lipoprotein Deprivation Reveals a Cholesterol-Dependent Therapeutic Vulnerability in Diffuse Glioma Metabolism.

Genome-Wide Expression and Anti-Proliferative Effects of Electric Field Therapy on Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors (2022)
Journal Article
Branter, J., Estevez-Cebrero, M., Diksin, M., Griffin, M., Castellanos-Uribe, M., May, S., Rahman, R., Grundy, R., Basu, S., & Smith, S. (2022). Genome-Wide Expression and Anti-Proliferative Effects of Electric Field Therapy on Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(4), Article 1982. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23041982

The lack of treatment options for high-grade brain tumors has led to searches for alternative therapeutic modalities. Electrical field therapy is one such area. The Optune™ system is an FDA-approved novel device that delivers continuous alternating e... Read More about Genome-Wide Expression and Anti-Proliferative Effects of Electric Field Therapy on Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors.

CG7379 and ING1 suppress cancer cell invasion by maintaining cell–cell junction integrity (2021)
Journal Article
Rusu, A. D., Cornhill, Z. E., Coutiño, B. C., Uribe, M. C., Lourdusamy, A., Markus, Z., May, S. T., Rahman, R., & Georgiou, M. (2021). CG7379 and ING1 suppress cancer cell invasion by maintaining cell–cell junction integrity. Open Biology, 11(9), Article 210077. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.210077

Approximately 90% of cancer-related deaths can be attributed to a tumour's ability to spread. We have identified CG7379, the fly orthologue of human ING1, as a potent invasion suppressor. ING1 is a type II tumour suppressor with well-established role... Read More about CG7379 and ING1 suppress cancer cell invasion by maintaining cell–cell junction integrity.

Integrated Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Using an Optimised Dual Extraction Process to Study Human Brain Cancer Cells and Tissues (2021)
Journal Article
Rahman, R., Woodward, A., Pandele, A., Abdelrazig, S., Ortori, C., Khan, I., Castellanos-Uribe, M., May, S., Barrett, D., Grundy, R., & Kim, D.-H. (2021). Integrated Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Using an Optimised Dual Extraction Process to Study Human Brain Cancer Cells and Tissues. Metabolites, 11(4), Article 240. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11040240

The integration of untargeted metabolomics and transcriptomics from the same population of cells or tissue enhances the confidence in the identified metabolic pathways and understanding of the enzyme–metabolite relationship. Here, we optimised a simu... Read More about Integrated Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Using an Optimised Dual Extraction Process to Study Human Brain Cancer Cells and Tissues.

Evaluating the influence of progesterone concentration and time of exposure on in vitro endometrial decidualisation (2021)
Journal Article
Suthaporn, S., Jayaprakasan, K., Thornton, J. G., Walker, K. F., Castellanos, M., May, S., Hernandez-Medrano, J., & Maalouf, W. E. (2021). Evaluating the influence of progesterone concentration and time of exposure on in vitro endometrial decidualisation. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 528, Article 111242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mce.2021.111242

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of progesterone (concentration and time of exposure) on endometrial decidualisation using an in vitro model cell line: Human Endometrial Stromal Cells (HESCs). HESCs exposed to progesterone (1 and 10 μM) had... Read More about Evaluating the influence of progesterone concentration and time of exposure on in vitro endometrial decidualisation.

Suboptimal mid-luteal progesterone concentrations are associated with aberrant endometrial gene expression, potentially resulting in implantation failure (2020)
Journal Article
Suthaporn, S., Jayaprakasan, K., Thornton, J., Walker, K., Medrano, J. H., Castellanos, M., May, S., Polanski, L., Raine-Fenning, N., & Maalouf, W. E. (2021). Suboptimal mid-luteal progesterone concentrations are associated with aberrant endometrial gene expression, potentially resulting in implantation failure. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 42(3), 595-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2020.10.018

Research question
What is the difference in endometrial transcriptomics between women with normal and with low mid-luteal progesterone during the implantation window?

Design
An endometrial biopsy and serum progesterone concentration were taken f... Read More about Suboptimal mid-luteal progesterone concentrations are associated with aberrant endometrial gene expression, potentially resulting in implantation failure.

TWIST1 DNA methylation is a cell marker of airway and parenchymal lung fibroblasts that are differentially methylated in asthma (2020)
Journal Article
Clifford, R. L., Yang, C. X., Fishbane, N., Patel, J., MacIsaac, J. L., McEwen, L. M., May, S. T., Castellanos-Uribe, M., Nair, P., Obeidat, M., Kobor, M. S., Knox, A. J., & Hackett, T. L. (2020). TWIST1 DNA methylation is a cell marker of airway and parenchymal lung fibroblasts that are differentially methylated in asthma. Clinical Epigenetics, 12(1), Article 145. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00931-4

© 2020 The Author(s). Background: Mesenchymal fibroblasts are ubiquitous cells that maintain the extracellular matrix of organs. Within the lung, airway and parenchymal fibroblasts are crucial for lung development and are altered with disease, but it... Read More about TWIST1 DNA methylation is a cell marker of airway and parenchymal lung fibroblasts that are differentially methylated in asthma.

How to build an effective research network: Lessons from two decades of the GARNet plant science community (2020)
Journal Article
Parry, G., Benitez-Alfonso, Y., Gibbs, D. J., Grant, M., Harper, A., Harrison, C. J., Kaiserli, E., Leonelli, S., May, S., McKim, S., Spoel, S., Turnbull, C., van der Hoorn, R. A. L., & Murray, J. (2020). How to build an effective research network: Lessons from two decades of the GARNet plant science community. Journal of Experimental Botany, 71(22), 6881-6889. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa397

Successful collaborative research is dependent on excellent ideas and innovative experimental approaches, as well as the provision of appropriate support networks. Collaboration requires venues, infrastructures, training facilities, and, perhaps most... Read More about How to build an effective research network: Lessons from two decades of the GARNet plant science community.

Current status of the multinational Arabidopsis community (2020)
Journal Article
Parry, G., Provart, N. J., Brady, S. M., Uzilday, B., Adams, K., Araújo, W., Aubourg, S., Baginsky, S., Bakker, E., Bärenfaller, K., Batley, J., Beale, M., Beilstein, M., Belkhadir, Y., Mendel, G., Berardini, T., Bergelson, J., Blanco‐Herrera, F., Brady, S., Braun, H., …The Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee. (2020). Current status of the multinational Arabidopsis community. Plant Direct, 4(7), https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.248

© 2020 The Authors. Plant Direct published by American Society of Plant Biologists and the Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd The multinational Arabidopsis research community is highly collaborative and over the past thirty... Read More about Current status of the multinational Arabidopsis community.

A Genetic Analysis of Tumor Progression in Drosophila Identifies the Cohesin Complex as a Suppressor of Individual and Collective Cell Invasion (2020)
Journal Article
Canales Coutino, B., Cornhill, Z. E., Couto, A., Mack, N. A., Rusu, A. D., Nagarajan, U., Fan, Y. N., Hadjicharalambous, M. R., Castellanos Uribe, M., Burrows, A., Lourdusamy, A., Rahman, R., May, S. T., & Georgiou, M. (2020). A Genetic Analysis of Tumor Progression in Drosophila Identifies the Cohesin Complex as a Suppressor of Individual and Collective Cell Invasion. iScience, 23(6), Article 101237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101237

© 2020 The Authors Metastasis is the leading cause of death for patients with cancer. Consequently it is imperative that we improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie progression of tumor growth toward malignancy. Advances in... Read More about A Genetic Analysis of Tumor Progression in Drosophila Identifies the Cohesin Complex as a Suppressor of Individual and Collective Cell Invasion.

Repurposing Antibacterial AM404 as a Potential Anticancer Drug for Targeting Colorectal Cancer Stem-Like Cells (2019)
Journal Article
Ahmed, M., Jinks, N., Babaei-Jadidi, R., Kashfi, H., Castellanos-Uribe, M., May, S. T., Mukherjee, A., & Nateri, A. S. (2019). Repurposing Antibacterial AM404 as a Potential Anticancer Drug for Targeting Colorectal Cancer Stem-Like Cells. Cancers, 12(1), Article 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12010106

Tumour-promoting inflammation is involved in colorectal cancer (CRC) development and therapeutic resistance. However, the antibiotics and antibacterial drugs and signalling that regulate the potency of anticancer treatment upon forced differentiation... Read More about Repurposing Antibacterial AM404 as a Potential Anticancer Drug for Targeting Colorectal Cancer Stem-Like Cells.

Arabidopsis bioinformatics resources: the current state, challenges, and priorities for the future (2019)
Journal Article
Doherty, C., Friesner, J., Gregory, B., Loraine, A., Megraw, M., Meyers, B., Provart, N., Keith Slotkin, R., Town, C., Assmann, S., Axtell, M., Berardini, T., Chen, S., Gehan, M., Huala, E., Jaiswal, P., Larson, S., Li, S., May, S., Michael, T., …Wurtele, E. (2019). Arabidopsis bioinformatics resources: the current state, challenges, and priorities for the future. Plant Direct, 3(1), Article e00109. https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.109

Effective research, education, and outreach efforts by the Arabidopsis thaliana community, as well as other scientific communities that depend on Arabidopsis resources, depend vitally on easily available and publicly-shared resources. These resources... Read More about Arabidopsis bioinformatics resources: the current state, challenges, and priorities for the future.

Metallome of cerebrovascular endothelial cells infected with Toxoplasma gondii using μ-XRF imaging and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (2018)
Journal Article
Al-sandaqchi, A. T., Brignell, C., Collingwood, J. F., Geraki, K., Mirkes, E. M., Kong, K., Castellanos, M., May, S. T., Stevenson, C. W., & Elsheikha, H. M. (2018). Metallome of cerebrovascular endothelial cells infected with Toxoplasma gondii using μ-XRF imaging and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Metallomics, 1401-1414. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8MT00136G

In this study, we measured the levels of elements in human brain microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) infected with T. gondii. ECs were infected with tachyzoites of the RH strain, and at 6, 24, and 48 hours post infection (hpi), the intracellular co... Read More about Metallome of cerebrovascular endothelial cells infected with Toxoplasma gondii using μ-XRF imaging and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Transcriptional analysis of adipose tissue during development reveals depot-specific responsiveness to maternal dietary supplementation (2018)
Journal Article
Fainberg, H. P., Birtwistle, M., Alagal, R., Alhaddad, A., Pope, M., Davies, G., Woods, R., Castellanos, M., May, S. T., Ortori, C. A., Barrett, D. A., Perry, V., Wiens, F., Stahl, B., van der Beek, E., Sacks, H., Budge, H., & Symonds, M. E. (2018). Transcriptional analysis of adipose tissue during development reveals depot-specific responsiveness to maternal dietary supplementation. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27376-3

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) undergoes pronounced changes after birth coincident with the loss of the BAT-specifc uncoupling protein (UCP)1 and rapid fat growth. The extent to which this adaptation may vary between anatomical locations remains unknown,... Read More about Transcriptional analysis of adipose tissue during development reveals depot-specific responsiveness to maternal dietary supplementation.

A molecular signature of dormancy in CD34+CD38- acute myeloid leukaemia cells (2017)
Journal Article
Al-Asadi, M. G., Brindle, G., Castellanos, M., May, S., Mills, K. I., Russell, N., Seedhouse, C., & Pallis, M. (2017). A molecular signature of dormancy in CD34+CD38- acute myeloid leukaemia cells. Oncotarget, 8(67), 111405-111418. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.22808

Dormant leukaemia initiating cells in the bone marrow niche are a crucial therapeutic target for total eradication of acute myeloid leukaemia. To study this cellular subset we created and validated an in vitro model employing the cell line TF-1a, tre... Read More about A molecular signature of dormancy in CD34+CD38- acute myeloid leukaemia cells.

A cross-species gene expression marker-based genetic map and QTL analysis in bambara groundnut (2017)
Journal Article
Chai, H., Ho, W., Graham, N., May, S., Massawe, F., & Mayes, S. (2017). A cross-species gene expression marker-based genetic map and QTL analysis in bambara groundnut. Genes, 8(3), https://doi.org/10.3390/genes8020084

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is an underutilised legume crop, which has long been recognised as a protein-rich and drought-tolerant crop, used extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the study was to identify quantitative t... Read More about A cross-species gene expression marker-based genetic map and QTL analysis in bambara groundnut.