Name: Ants Kurg

Date of birth: December 19, 1962
Place of birth: Viljandi, Estonia
Citizenship: Estonian
 
  Office:
Address: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Tartu University
Estonian Biocentre
23 Riia St. 51010 Tartu
Estonia
Phone: (372) 7 375 018
Fax: (372) 7 420 286
E-mail: akurg@ ebc.ee
 
  Education:
1982 - 1986 Tartu University, Faculty of Biology and Geography, cum laude as biochemist
1988 Three months visiting scientist at Shemjakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Soviet Union, Dr. Elena I. Frolova laboratory
1989 From May to June visiting scientist at Humboldt University of Berlin; GDR, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Prof. Siegfried Risse laboratory
1991 From September to December, visiting scientist at Humbolt University of Berlin; Germany, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Prof Siegfreid Risse laboratory
1992 From July to August and from November to December, visiting scientist at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Biochemistry, Prof. Siegfreid Risse laboratory
1993 From September to December, research grant from EEC to study retroviral vectors based on BLV, at Free University of Berlin, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Virology Prof. Dieter Ebner laboratory and Institute of Biochemistry, Prof. Siegfried Risse laboratory
1996 Ph.D., in Molecular Biology Title: “Bovine Leukaemia Virus: Molecular Studies on the Packaging Region and DNA Diagnostics in Cattle”. Advisor: Prof. Andres Metspalu MD, Ph.D.
1997 - 1998 Postdoc at the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
 
  Work Experience:
1986 - 1991 Institute of General and Molecular Pathology, Laboratory of Gene Expression, Tartu University, Junior Scientist
1991 - 1997 Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Biotechnology, Tartu University, Scientist
1998 - 1999 Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Biotechnology, Tartu University, Senior Scientist
1999 - present Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Biotechnology, Tartu University, Docent
 
  Teaching:
1991 - 1997 I have supervised diploma works at Department of Biotechnology
1993 - 1997 Lecture course “General and molecular biotechnology”.
1999 - present Lecture course “Molecular biotechnology”, "Practical training course in molecular biotechnology"
 
  Publications:
 

A new highly penetrant form of obesity due to deletions on chromosome 16p11.2
R. G. Walters, S. Jacquemont, A. Valsesia, A. J. de Smith, D. Martinet, J. Andersson, M. Falchi, F. Chen, J. Andrieux, S. Lobbens, B. Delobel, F. Stutzmann, J. S. El-Sayed Moustafa, J.-C. Chèvre, C. Lecoeur, V. Vatin, S. Bouquillon, J. L. Buxton, O. Boute, M. Holder-Espinasse, J.-M. Cuisset, M.-P. Lemaitre, A.-E. Ambresin, A. Brioschi, M. Gaillard, V. Giusti, F. Fellmann, A. Ferrarini, N. Hadjikhani, D. Campion, A. Guilmatre, A. Goldenberg, N. Calmels, J.-L. Mandel, C. Le Caignec, A. David, B. Isidor, M.-P. Cordier, S. Dupuis-Girod, A. Labalme, D. Sanlaville, M. Béri-Dexheimer, P. Jonveaux, B. Leheup, K. Õunap, E. G. Bochukova, E. Henning, J. Keogh, R. J. Ellis, K. D. MacDermot, M. M. van Haelst, C. Vincent-Delorme, G. Plessis, R. Touraine, A. Philippe, V. Malan, M. Mathieu-Dramard, J. Chiesa, B. Blaumeiser, R. F. Kooy, R. Caiazzo, M. Pigeyre, B. Balkau, R. Sladek, S. Bergmann, V. Mooser, D. Waterworth, A. Reymond, P. Vollenweider, G. Waeber, A. Kurg, P. Palta, T. Esko, A. Metspalu, M. Nelis, P. Elliott, A.-L. Hartikainen, M. I. McCarthy, L. Peltonen, L. Carlsson, P. Jacobson, L. Sjöström, N. Huang, M. E. Hurles, S. O’Rahilly, I. S. Farooqi, K. Männik, M.-R. Jarvelin, F. Pattou, D. Meyre, A. J. Walley, L. J. M. Coin, A. I. F. Blakemore, P. Froguel & J. S. Beckmann
Nature 463, 671-675 (4 February 2010)

B W M van Bon, H C Mefford, B Menten, D A Koolen, A J Sharp, W M Nillesen, J W Innis, T J L de Ravel, C L Mercer, M Fichera, H Stewart, L E Connell, K Ounap, B Castle, N Van der Aa, C van Ravenswaaij, M A Nobrega, C Serra-Juhé, I Simonic, N de Leeuw, R Pfundt, E M Bongers, C Baker, P Finnemore, S Huang, V K Maloney, J A Crolla, M van Kalmthout, M Elia, G Vandeweyer, J P Fryns, S Janssens, N Foulds, S Reitano, K Smith, S Parkel, B Loeys 3, C G Woods, A Oostra, F Speleman, A C C Pereira, A Kurg, Lionel Willatt, S J L Knight, J R Vermeesch, C Romano, J C Barber, G Mortier, L A Perez-Jurado, F Kooy, H G Brunner 1, E E Eichler, T Kleefstra and B B A de Vries
Further delineation of the 15q13 microdeletion and duplication syndromes: A clinical spectrum varying from non-pathogenic to a severe outcome, 
J Med Genet. Published Online First: 15 April 2009. doi:10.1136/jmg.2008.063412

Kousoulidou L, Parkel S, Zilina O, Palta P, Puusepp H, Remm M, Turner G, Boyle J, van Bokhoven H, de Brouwer A, Van Esch H, Froyen G, Ropers HH, Chelly J, Moraine C, Gecz J, Kurg A, Patsalis PC.
Screening of 20 patients with X-linked mental retardation using chromosome X-specific array-MAPH.
Eur J Med Genet. 2007 Sep 29; [Epub ahead of print]
 
US Patent Application: Method and Apparatus for Detection and Analysis of Biological Materials through Laser Induced Fluorescence, application #US11/584934.

Kõks, S., Nikopensius, T., Koido, K., Maron, E., Altmäe, S., Heinaste, E., Vabrit, K., Tammekivi, V., Hallast, P., Kurg, A., Shlik, J., Vasar, V., Metspalu, A., Vasar, E. (2006) Analysis of SNP profiles in patients with major depressive disorder.  
Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol. 9 (2): 167-174.

Patsalis PC, Kousoulidou L, Mannik K, Sismani C, Zilina O, Parkel S, Puusepp H, Tonisson N, Palta P, Remm M, Kurg A.
Detection of small genomic imbalances using microarray-based multiplex amplifiable probe hybridization.
Eur J Hum Genet. 2006 Nov 22

Saal, K; Tätte, T; Tulp, I; Kink, I; Kurg, A; Mäeorg, U; Rinken, A;
Lõhmus, A (2006). Sol-gel films for DNA microarray applications.
Materials Letters, 60(15), 1833 - 1838.

Shadrina M, Nikopensius T, Slominsky P, Illarioshkin S, Bagyeva G, Markova E, Ivanova-Smolenskaia I, Kurg A, Limborska S, Metspalu A.
Association study of sporadic Parkinson's disease genetic risk factors in patients from Russia by APEX technology.
Neurosci Lett. 2006 Sep 25;405(3):212-6. Epub 2006 Jul 28.  

Patsalis PC, Kousoulidou L, Sismani C, Männik K, Kurg A.
MAPH: from gels to microarrays.
Eur J Med Genet. 2005 Jul-Sep;48(3):241-9.

Maron E., Nikopensius T., Kõks S., Altmäe S., Heinaste E., Vabrit K., Tammekivi V., Hallast P., Koido K., Kurg A., Metspalu A., Vasar E., Vasar V., Shlik J.  Association study of 90 candidate gene polymorphisms in panic disorder.  Psychiatric Genet., 2005, 15(1):17-24.

Koido K., Kõks S., Nikopensius T., Maron E., Altmäe S., Heinaste E., Vabrit K., Tammekivi V., Hallast P., Kurg A., Shlik J., Vasar V., Metspalu A., Vasar E.  Polymorphisms in wolframin (WFS1) gene are possibly related to increased risk for mood disorders.
 Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol., 2005, 8(2): 235-244.
 
Tõnisson, N, Kurg, A, Kaasik, K, Lõhmussaar, E, Metspalu, A. (2000) Unravelling Genetic Data by Arrayed Primer Extension. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 38: 165-170.

Kurg A, Tõnisson N, Georgiou I, Shumaker J, Tollett J, Metspalu A. (2000) Arrayed Primer Extension: Solid phase four-color DNA resequencing and mutation detection technology. Genetic Testing 4: 1-7.

Tõnisson, N, Kurg, A, Lõhmussaar, E, Metspalu, A. (2000) Arrayed Primer Extension of the DNA chip- Methods and Applications. In Microarray Biochip Technologies (M. Schena ed), 247-263 Biotechniques Books. Natick, MA.

Kurg A, Tõnisson N, Metspalu A, Berik E. (1999) Laser diagnostic system for rapid mutation identification. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing 37: suppl. 1, 311.

Metspalu, A., Saulep, H., Kurg, A., Tõnisson, N. and Shumaker, J. M. (1998) Primer extension from two-dimensional oligonucleotide grids for DNA sequence analysis. In "GENOMICS Commercial Opportunities from a Scientific Revolution." (G.K. Dixon, L.G. Copping and D. Livingstone, Eds), 217-219. BIOS Scientific Publishers, Ltd. Oxford, UK.

Pastinen, T., Kurg, A., Metspalu, A., Peltonen, L. and Syvänen, A.-C. (1997) Minisequencing: A specific tool for DNA analysis and diagnostics on oligonucleotide arrays. Genome Research 7: 606-614.

Fechner, H., Blankenstein, P., Looman, A. C., Elwert, J., Geue, L., Albrecht, C., Kurg, A., Beier, D., Marquart O. and Ebner, D. (1997) Provirus mutants of the bovine leukemia virus and their relation to the serological status in naturally infected cattle. Virology 237: 261-269.

Fechner, H., Kurg, A., Geue, L., Blankenstein, P., Mewes, G., Ebner, D., and Beier, D. (1996) Evaluation of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) application in diagnosis of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection in naturally infected cattle. Journal of Veterinary Medicine B. 43: 621-630.

Fechner, H., Kurg, A., Blankenstein, P., Mewes, G., Geue, L., Albrecht, C., and Ebner, D. (1996) Direct use of cell lysates in PCR-based diagnosis of bovine leukemia virus infection. Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 109: 446-450.

Kurg, A., Sommer, G., and Metspalu, A. (1995) An RNA stem-loop structure involved in the packaging of bovine leukemia virus genomic RNA in vivo. Virology 211: 434-442.

Sommer, G., Kurg, A., Wagner, H.-J., Heymann, S., Blankenstein, P., und Ebner, D. (1990) Untersuchungen zur Lage eines vermuteten Verpackungsortes im Genom des Bovinen Leukosevirus. Monatshefte für Veterinärmedizin 45: 713-716.