Dena Francis
- deanne.francis@jcu.edu.au
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4158-1521- Lecturer, Molecular Genetics
- Molecular and Cell Biology
Projects
0
Publications
15
Awards
0
Biography
Dr. Dena Francis is a lecturer in the college of medicine and dentistry at James Cook University. She has extensive experience using the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster to investigate questions in developmental biology, genetics, physiology, and metabolism.
Dr. Francis obtained her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States working with A/Prof Amin Ghabrial. Her Ph.D. focused on how connections between different epithelial tubes within the D. melanogaster larval respiratory system are maintained during growth and development. She did her postdoctoral research with Prof David James at the University of Sydney. Dr. Francis studied how diet and genetic predisposition interact to affect metabolic traits. She completed a genome-wide association study in flies, to identify genetic variants associated with energy storage and utilization in response to diet.
Research
Research Interests
Molecular mechanisms of heat response
What dietary nutrients affect sleep?
The effect of gene-enviornment interactions on health.
Teaching
Taught Modules
2026
[BM3130] Genes, Genomes and DevelopmentCoordinator
2026
[BM1300] Genes and HealthCoordinator, Lecturer
2026
Activities
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
2009 - 2015
Employment
Output
Francis, Deanne; Burguete, Alondra S.; Ghabrial, Amin S. (2022) 'Regulation of Archease by the mTOR-vATPase axis'. Development, 149 (19). [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Scopulovic, Luke; Francis, Deanne; Pandzic, Elvis; Francis, Richard (2022) 'Quantifying cilia beat frequency using high-speed video microscopy: Assessing frame rate requirements when imaging different ciliated tissues'. Physiological Reports, 10 (11):e15349-e15349.
Havula, E.; Ghazanfar, S.; Lamichane, N.; Francis, D.; Hasygar, K.; Liu, Y.; Alton, L.A.; Johnstone, J.; Needham, E.J.; Pulpitel, T.; Clark, T.; Niranjan, H.N.; Shang, V.; Tong, V.; Jiwnani, N.; Audia, G.; Alves, A.N.; Sylow, L.; Mirth, C.; Neely, G.G.; Yang, J.; Hietakangas, V.; Simpson, S.J.; Senior, A.M. (2022) 'Genetic variation of macronutrient tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster'. Nature Communications, 13 . [DOI]
Francis, Deanne; Ghazanfar, Shila; Havula, Essi; Krycer, James R.; Strbenac, Dario; Senior, Alistair; Minard, Annabel Y.; Geddes, Thomas; Nelson, Marin E.; Weiss, Fiona; Stöckli, Jacqueline; Yang, Jean Y.H.; James, David E. (2021) 'Genome-wide analysis in Drosophila reveals diet-by-gene interactions and uncovers diet-responsive genes'. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 11 (10). [DOI]
Yang, Guang; Francis, Deanne; Krycer, James R.; Larance, Mark; Zhang, Ziyang; Novotny, Chris J.; Diaz-Vegas, Alexis; Shokat, Kevan M.; James, David E. (2021) 'Dissecting the biology of mTORC1 beyond rapamycin'. Science Signaling, 14 (701). [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Blazev, Ronnie; Ashwood, Christopher; Abrahams, Jodie L.; Chung, Long H.; Francis, Deanne; Yang, Pengyi; Watt, Kevin I.; Qian, Hongwei; Quaife-Ryan, Gregory A.; Hudson, James E.; Gregorevic, Paul; Thaysen-Andersen, Morten; Parker, Benjamin L. (2021) 'Integrated Glycoproteomics Identifies a Role of N-Glycosylation and Galectin-1 on Myogenesis and Muscle Development'. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, 20 . [DOI]
Krycer, James R.; Quek, Lake-Ee; Francis, Deanne; Zadoorian, Armella; Weiss, Fiona C.; Cooke, Kristen C.; Nelson, Marin E.; Diaz-Vegas, Alexis; Humphrey, Sean J.; Scalzo, Richard; Hirayama, Akiyoshi; Ikeda, Satsuki; Shoji, Futaba; Suzuki, Kumi; Huynh, Kevin; Giles, Corey; Varney, Bianca; Nagarajan, Shilpa R.; Hoy, Andrew J.; Soga, Tomoyoshi; Meikle, Peter J.; Cooney, Gregory J.; Fazakerley, Daniel J.; James, David E. (2020) 'Insulin signaling requires glucose to promote lipid anabolism in adipocytes'. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 295 (38):13250-13266. [DOI]
Krycer, James R.; Quek, Lake-Ee; Francis, Deanne; Fazakerley, Daniel J.; Elkington, Sarah D.; Diaz-Vegas, Alexis; Cooke, Kristen C.; Weiss, Fiona C.; Duan, Xiaowen; Kurdyukov, Sergey; Zhou, Ping-Xin; Tambar, Uttam K.; Hirayama, Akiyoshi; Ikeda, Satsuki; Kamei, Yushi; Soga, Tomoyoshi; Cooney, Gregory J.; James, David E. (2020) 'Lactate production is a prioritized feature of adipocyte metabolism'. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 295 (1):83-98. [DOI]
A modified gas-trapping method for high-throughput metabolic experiments in Drosophila melanogaster
2019
Francis, Deanne; Krycer, James R; Cooney, Gregory J; James, David E (2019) 'A modified gas-trapping method for high-throughput metabolic experiments in Drosophila melanogaster'. BioTechniques, 67 :123-125. [DOI]
Su, Zhiduan; Burchfield, James G.; Yang, Pengyi; Humphrey, Sean J.; Yang, Guang; Francis, Deanne; Yasmin, Sabina; Shin, Sung-Young; Norris, Dougall M.; Kearney, Alison L.; Astore, Miro A.; Scavuzzo, Jonathan; Fisher-Wellman, Kelsey H.; Wang, Qiao-Ping; Parker, Benjamin L.; Neely, G. Gregory; Vafaee, Fatemeh; Chiu, Joyce; Yeo, Reichelle; Hogg, Philip J.; Fazakerley, Daniel J.; Nguyen, Lan K.; Kuyucak, Serdar; James, David E. (2019) 'Global redox proteome and phosphoproteome analysis reveals redox switch in Akt'. Nature Communications, 10 . [DOI]
Burguete, Alondra Schweizer; Francis, Deanne; Rosa, Jeffrey; Ghabrial, Amin (2019) 'The regulation of cell size and branch complexity in the terminal cells of the Drosophila tracheal system'. Developmental Biology, 451 :79-85. [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Yang, Guang; Humphrey, Sean J.; Murashige, Danielle S.; Francis, Deanne; Wang, Qiao‐Ping; Cooke, Kristen C.; Neely, G. Gregory; James, David E. (2019) 'RagC phosphorylation autoregulates mTOR complex 1'. The EMBO Journal, 38 . [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Nelson, Marin E.; Parker, Benjamin L.; Burchfield, James G.; Hoffman, Nolal J.; Needham, Elise J.; Cooke, Kristen C.; Naim, Timur; Sylow, Lykke; Ling, Naomi X.Y.; Francis, Deanne; Norris, Dougall M.; Chaudhuri, Rima; Oakhill, Jonathan S.; Richter, Erik A.; Lynch, Gordon S.; Stöckli, Jacqueline; James, David E. (2019) 'Phosphoproteomics reveals conserved exercise‐stimulated signaling and AMPK regulation of store‐operated calcium entry'. The EMBO Journal, 38 (24). [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Francis, Deanne; Ghabrial, Amin S. (2015) 'Compensatory branching morphogenesis of stalk cells in the Drosophila trachea'. Development, 142 :2048-2057. [DOI]
Journal Publication
ResearchOnline@JCU
Cui, Cheng; Chatterjee, Bishwanath; Francis, Deanne; Yu, Qing; SanAgustin, Jovenal T.; Francis, Richard; Tansey, Terry; Henry, Charisse; Wang, Baolin; Lemley, Bethan; Pazour, Gregory J.; Lo, Cecilia W. (2011) 'Disruption of Mks1 localization to the mother centriole causes cilia defects and developmental malformations in Meckel-Gruber syndrome'. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 4 :43-56. [DOI]