Peter McCourt


Professor

Job description

Peter is teaching Biochemistry to Medical Laboratory Scientists and to Dental Nurses. He also supervises a number of PhD and MSc students. His current research involves developing super-resolution optical methods (SIM and dSTORM) for the study of liver sinusoidal endothelial cell (LSEC) fenestrations, and how they change with ageing. He is also studying endocytic processes in LSEC, and in their "cousins", bone-marrow sinusoidal endothelial cells.


  • Nicholas J Hunt, Glen P Lockwood, Scott Heffernan, Jarryd Daymond, Meng Ngu, Ramesh Narayanan et al.:
    Oral nanotherapeutic formulation of insulin with reduced episodes of hypoglycaemia
    Nature Nanotechnology 2024 DOI
  • Henning Ortkrass, Jasmin Schürstedt, Gerd Wiebusch, Karolina Joanna Szafranska, Peter Anthony McCourt, Thomas Rolf Huser :
    High-speed TIRF and 2D super-resolution structured illumination microscopy with a large field of view based on fiber optic components
    Optics Express 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Matteo Boninsegna, Peter Anthony McCourt, Christopher Florian Holte :
    The Computed Sinusoid
    Livers 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Christopher Florian Holte, Karolina Joanna Szafranska, Larissa Dorothea Kruse, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Ruomei Li, Dmitri Svistounov et al.:
    Highly oxidized albumin is cleared by liver sinusoidal endothelial cells via the receptors stabilin-1 and -2
    Scientific Reports 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Hong Mao, Karolina Szafranska, Larissa Dorothea Kruse, Christopher Florian Holte, Deanna Wolfson, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia et al.:
    Effect of caffeine and other xanthines on liver sinusoidal endothelial cell ultrastructure
    Scientific Reports 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Henning Ortkrass, Gerd Wiebusch, Jochen Linnenbrügger, Jasmin Schürstedt, Karolina Joanna Szafranska, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    Grazing incidence to total internal reflection fluorescence structured illumination microscopy enabled by a prism telescope
    Optics Express 2023 ARKIV / DOI
  • Karolina Szafranska, Tanja Neuman, Zbigniew Baster, Zenon Rajfur, Oskar Szelest, Christopher Florian Holte et al.:
    From fixed-dried to wet-fixed to live-comparative super-resolution microscopy of liver sinusoidal endothelial cell fenestrations
    Nanophotonics 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Barlomiej Zapotoczny, Karolina Szafranska, Malgorzata Lekka, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, Peter Anthony McCourt :
    Tuning of Liver Sieve: The Interplay between Actin and Myosin Regulatory Light Chain Regulates Fenestration Size and Number in Murine Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells
    International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Elise Anne van Os, Laura Cools, Nathalie Eysackers, Karolina Szafranska, Ayla Smout, Stefaan Verhulst et al.:
    Modelling fatty liver disease with mouse liver-derived multicellular spheroids
    Biomaterials 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Nicholas J Hunt, Peter Anthony McCourt, Zdenka Kuncic, David G Le Couteur, Victoria C Cogger :
    Opportunities and Challenges for Nanotherapeutics for the Aging Population
    Frontiers in Nanotechnology 25. January 2022 ARKIV / DOI
  • Anett Kristin Larsen, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, kjetil helge Elvevold, Bo Gøran Ericzon, Kim Erlend Mortensen, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    Autofluorescence in freshly isolated adult human liver sinusoidal cells
    European journal of histochemistry 2021 ARKIV / DOI
  • Sabin Bhandari, Anett Kristin Larsen, Peter Anthony McCourt, Bård Smedsrød, Karen Kristine Sørensen :
    The scavenger function of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in health and disease
    Frontiers in Physiology 11. October 2021 ARKIV / DOI
  • Karolina Szafranska, Larissa Dorothea Kruse, Christopher Florian Holte, Peter Anthony McCourt, Bartlomiej Zapotoczny :
    The wHole Story About Fenestrations in LSEC
    Frontiers in Physiology 2021 ARKIV / DOI
  • Karolina Szafranska, Christopher Florian Holte, Larissa Dorothea Kruse, Hong Mao, Cristina Ionica Øie, Marek Symonski et al.:
    Quantitative analysis methods for studying fenestrations in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. A comparative study
    Micron 2021 ARKIV / DOI
  • Ankit Butola, David Andre Coucheron, Karolina Szafranska, Azeem Ahmad, Hong Mao, Jean-Claude Tinguely et al.:
    Multimodal on-chip nanoscopy and quantitative phase imaging reveals the nanoscale morphology of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2021 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Nicholas J. Hunt, Glen P Lockwood, Sun W. S. Kang, Lara Westwood, Christina Limantoro, Wojciech Chrzanowski et al.:
    Quantum Dot Nanomedicine Formulations Dramatically Improve Pharmacological Properties and Alter Uptake Pathways of Metformin and Nicotinamide Mononucleotide in Aging Mice
    ACS Nano 2021 ARKIV / DOI
  • Cristina Ionica Øie, Deanna Wolfson, Tanji Yasunori, Gianina Dumitriu, Karen Kristine Sørensen, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells contribute to the uptake and degradation of entero bacterial viruses.
    Scientific Reports 2020 ARKIV / DOI
  • Jean-Claude Tinguely, Steyer Anna Maria, Cristina Ionica Øie, Øystein Ivar Helle, Firehun Tsige Dullo, Randi Olsen et al.:
    Photonic-chip assisted correlative light and electron microscopy
    Communications Biology 2020 ARKIV / DOI
  • Matteo Boninsegna, Nikhil Jayakumar, Firehun Tsige Dullo, Peter Anthony McCourt, Thomas Rolf Huser, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia et al.:
    Waveguide chip coupled with microfluidics enables super-resolution live-cell imaging
    Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering 2020 DOI
  • Nicholas J Hunt, Glen P Lockwood, Frank H. Le Couteur, Peter Anthony McCourt, Nidhi Singla, Sun Kang et al.:
    Rapid Intestinal Uptake and Targeted Delivery to the Liver Endothelium Using Orally Administered Silver Sulfide Quantum Dots.
    ACS Nano 2020 ARKIV / DOI
  • Sabin Bhandari, Ruomei Li, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Peter Anthony McCourt, Steinar Daae Johansen, Bård Smedsrød et al.:
    Transcriptome and proteome profiling reveal complementary scavenger and immune features of rat liver sinusoidal endothelial cells and liver macrophages
    BMC Molecular and Cell Biology 2020 ARKIV / DOI
  • Hong Mao, Robin Diekmann, Hai Po H Liang, Victoria Carroll Cogger, David George Le Couteur, Glen P Lockwood et al.:
    Cost-efficient nanoscopy reveals nanoscale architecture of liver cells and platelets
    Nanophotonics 09. July 2019 ARKIV / DOI
  • Nick Hunt, Glen P Lockwood, Sun Kang, Tamara Pupitel, Ximonie Clark, Hong Mao et al.:
    The effects of metformin on age-related changes in the liver sinusoidal endothelial cell
    The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences 2019 ARKIV / DOI
  • Jean-Claude Tinguely, Steyer Anna Maria, Cristina Ionica Øie, Øystein Ivar Helle, Firehun Tsige Dullo, Randi Olsen et al.:
    Photonic-chip assisted corelative light and electron microscopy
    arXiv.org 2019
  • Nicholas J Hunt, Glen P Lockwood, Alessandra Warren, Hong Mao, Peter Anthony McCourt, David George Le Couteur et al.:
    Manipulating fenestrations in young and old liver sinusoidal endothelial cells
    American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology 2019 ARKIV / DOI
  • Cristina Ionica Øie, Viola Mönkemöller, Wolfgang Hubner, Mark Schuttpelz, Hong Mao, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia et al.:
    New ways of looking at very small holes – using optical nanoscopy to visualize liver sinusoidal endothelial cell fenestrations
    Nanophotonics 2018 ARKIV / FULLTEKST / DOI
  • Nicholas J Hunt, Peter Anthony McCourt, David George Le Couteur, Victoria C Cogger :
    Novel targets for delaying aging: The importance of the liver and advances in drug delivery
    Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 2018 ARKIV / DOI
  • Robin Diekmann, Øystein Ivar Helle, Cristina Ionica Øie, Peter Anthony McCourt, Thomas Rolf Huser, Mark Schuttpelz et al.:
    Chip-based wide field-of-view nanoscopy
    Nature Photonics 2017 ARKIV / DOI
  • Anett Kristin Larsen, Javier Sanchez Romano, Jaione Santamaria Simon, Kim Erlend Mortensen, Ingelin Kyrrestad Karlstrøm, Eirik Abrahamsen Lænsman et al.:
    Liver sinusoidal scavenger cells eliminate betaherpesvirus from the blood stream.
    Journal of Hepatology 2023 DOI
  • Javier Sanchez Romano, Jaione Santamaria Simon, Peter Anthony Gerard Mccourt, Christopher Florian Holte, Bård Smedsrød, Antonia Sagona et al.:
    Rapid blood clearance of phage K1F-GFP is mediated by the liver and executed by Kupffer cells and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in collaboration
    2023
  • Anett Kristin Larsen, Javier Sanchez Romano, Eirik Abrahamsen Lænsman, Anne Lotte Vada Hatlegjerde, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Kim Erlend Mortensen et al.:
    Liver sinusoidal scavenger cells eliminate betaherpesvirus from the blood stream
    2022
  • Javier Sanchez Romano, Anett Kristin Larsen, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Cristina Ionica Øie, Bård Smedsrød, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    The role of scavenger endothelial cells in bacteriophage pharmacokinetics
    2022
  • Javier Sanchez Romano, Anett Kristin Larsen, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Cristina Ionica Øie, Bård Smedsrød, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    The role of scavenger endothelial cells in bacteriophage pharmacokinetics
    2022
  • Anett Kristin Larsen, Javier Sanchez Romano, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Kim Erlend Mortensen, Bo Gøran Ericzon, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    Role of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in elimination of virus
    2022
  • Peter Anthony McCourt :
    Rejuvenating old holes in ageing livers, and watching this happen.
    2022
  • Ankit Butola, David Andre Coucheron, Karolina Szafranska, Azeem Ahmad, Hong Mao, Jean-Claude Tinguely et al.:
    Quantitative phase imaging and on-chip nanoscopy for 3D imaging of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells
    2022
  • Sebastian Andres Acuña Maldonado, Ida Sundvor Opstad, Luis Enrique Villegas Hernandez, Mona Nystad, Milton O Aguilera, Merete Storflor et al.:
    Fluorescence Nanoscopy Using Multiple Signal Classiflcation Algorithm (MUSICAL): From Electromagnetics Inverse Scattering Problem to Optics Inverse Source Problem
    2019
  • Javier Sanchez Romano, Anett Kristin Larsen, kjetil helge Elvevold, Christopher Florian Holte, Jaione Simon-Santamaria, Hans H. Hirsch et al.:
    SECVIR - The role of scavenger endothelial cells in elimination of virus
    2019
  • Andres Maldonado, Ida Sundvor Opstad, Luis Hernández, Mona Nystad, Milton Aguilera, Merete Storflor et al.:
    Fluorescence Nanoscopy Using Multiple Signal Classification Algorithm (MUSICAL): From Electromagnetics Inverse Scattering Problem to Optics Inverse Source Problem.
    2019
  • Peter Anthony McCourt :
    Reinvigorating old holes in the ageing liver, and how to watch this happen.
    2019
  • Christopher Florian Holte, Larissa Dorothea Kruse, Hong Mao, Karolina Szafranska, Peter Anthony McCourt :
    How do fenestrations work?
    2019
  • Viola Mönkemöller, Cristina Ionica Øie, Peter Heimann, Christian Kaltschmidt, Barbara Kaltschmidt, Peter Dedecker et al.:
    Revealing Structural Dynamics Of Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells By Super-Resolution Optical Microscopy
    2018
  • Deanna Wolfson, Cristina Ionica Øie, Tanji Yasunori, Gianina Dumitriu, Peter Anthony McCourt, Karen Kristine Sørensen et al.:
    Uptake and Degradation of Bacteriophages by Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells
    2018 ARKIV
  • Viola Mönkemöller, Cristina Ionica Øie, Peter Heimann, Christian Kaltschmidt, Barbara Kaltschmidt, Peter Anthony McCourt et al.:
    Revealing Structural Dynamics of Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells
    2017
  • Deanna Wolfson, Cristina Ionica Øie, Yasunori Tanji, Karen Kristine Sørensen, Peter Anthony McCourt, Bård Smedsrød et al.:
    Multimodal Microscopy to Study the Fate of Bacteriophages in Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells
    2017
  • Robin Diekmann, Øystein Ivar Helle, Cristina Ionica Øie, Peter Anthony McCourt, Thomas Huser, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia et al.:
    Waveguide Chip-Based Super-Resolution Microscopy Enables Multi-Modal Imaging over Large Fields-of-View
    2017
  • Øystein Ivar Helle, Robin Diekmann, Cristina Ionica Øie, Peter Anthony McCourt, Thomas R. Huser, Mark Schüttpelz et al.:
    Optical Nanoscopy using Waveguides
    2017
  • Peter Anthony McCourt, Hong Mao, Thomas Rolf Huser, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, David George Le Couteur, Victoria Carroll Cogger :
    New ways to look at very small holes: using super-resolution optical microscopy to reveal the secrets of holey liver cells
    2017
  • Hong Mao, Cristina Ionica Øie, Ruomei Li, Ana Oteiza, Karen Kristine Sørensen, Deanna Wolfson et al.:
    Disruption of rat liver sinusoidal endothelial cell morphology by oxidised low density lipoproteins
    2017
  • Hong Mao, Cristina Ionica Øie, Ruomei Li, Ana Oteiza, Karen Kristine Sørensen, Deanna Wolfson et al.:
    Using super-resolution microscopy to image disruption of liver sinusoidal endothelial cell morphology by oxidized low-density lipoproteins
    2017

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    Research interests

    Currently studying receptors responsible for the clearance of hyaluronan, denatured collagen and other waste connective tissue molecules from the circulation by liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC). Also studying the bone marrow counterparts of these cells (BMSEC) in transplant studies with collaborators in Melbourne, Australia. Peter is also studying the effects of ageing on LSEC morphology, in collaboration with the ANZAC Research Institute, Sydney, Australia. To this end, Peter uses electron microscopy and super-resolution optical microscopy (SIM and dSTORM) to study LSEC fenestrations during the ageing process.

    Teaching

    Biochemistry for medical laboratory scientists (MBI-1102) and dental nurses (TANN-101).




    CV

    Name 

    Peter Anthony Gerard McCourt

    Date of Birth            

    9th August 1965

    Nationality             

    Australian

    Academic background:                       

    1986 – B.Sc. (Honours 1a) Flinders University, Australia

    1999 – Ph.D. (Biochemistry), University of Uppsala, Sweden 

    Areas of research expertise:

    1. Protein purification, using salt cuts, ion exchange, gel filtration and hydrophobic interaction techniques, as well as ligand-, immuno- and reactive dye-affinity chromatography;

    2. Protein analysis using immunoprecipitation, one and two-dimensional SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting and amino acid sequence analysis;

    3. Production of rabbit, goat and sheep polyclonal antibodies and mouse monoclonal antibodies;

    4. Biochemical assays of cytochrome P450 enzymes in hepatocytes

    5. Tissue culture (short – liver cell primary cultures and long-term – various cell lines);

    6. Recombinant protein expression (transfection), in mammalian and bacterial systems;

    7. Bioinformatic, PCR and cloning strategies;

    8. Development of clinical ELISAs and other immunoassays.

    9. Immunohistochemistry and immuno electron microscopy

    10. Isolation of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC), and study of same using the above techniques.

    11. Isolation of bone marrow sinusoidal endothelial cells (BMSEC), bone marrow stem cells, study of same using the above techniques, and their use in bone marrow transplantation (homing and engraftment assays).

    12. Super resolution methods (e.g. SIM, dSTORM) for use in the study of LSEC fenestrations.

    Teaching:

    Approved teaching portfolio (a compulsory requirement for teachers at the University of Tromsø) 19.06.12.

    Currently teach Biochemistry to Medical Laboratory Scientists and Dental Nurses.

    Research background:

    2020-present: Professor of Biochemistry, IMB, studying the effects of ageing on LSEC morphology and biochemistry.

    2016-2017: Sabbatical at the ANZAC Research Institute (Sydney, Australia), Biogerontology Research Group (hosts: Professors David Le Couteur and Victoria Cogger).

    2016-present: Honorary Affiliate of the University of Sydney Medical School (Faculty of Medicine).

    2012-2020: Associate Professor, IMB, studying the effects of ageing on LSEC morphology and biochemistry. 

    2010-11: Guest Researcher, Niche Group, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton, Australia, with Associate Professor Susie Nilsson, studying bone-marrow sinusoidal endothelial cells and stem cells and their utility in bone-marrow transplants.         

    1999-2012: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow/Research Scientist at the Department of Cell Biology and Histology, Institute for Medical Biology, University of Tromsø with Professor Bård Smedsrød, studying receptors responsible for the clearance of hyaluronan, denatured collagen and other waste connective tissue molecules from the circulation by LSEC.  

    1993-1999: Ph.D. Student, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Uppsala, Sweden under the supervision of Professors Torvard Laurent and Staffan Johansson, working on the purification, characterisation and cloning of hyaluronan/scavenger receptors on liver scavenger endothelial cells.

    1990-1993: Guest Researcher, Department of Medical and Physiological Chemistry, University of Uppsala, Sweden under the supervision of Professor Torvard  Laurent, studying hyaluronan-binding properties of the monocytic cell lines U937 and J774.

    1987-1990: Research Assistant, Lysosomal Diseases Research Unit, Adelaide Children's Hospital, Adelaide, Australia with Professor John Hopwood, working on the purification of lysosomal enzymes, production of hybridoma cell lines/monoclonal antibodies, and development of ELISAs for clinical assessment of lysosomal enzyme deficiencies. 

    Financial Support:

    University of Tromsø Researcher Fellowship, HelseNord, various small foundations, Norwegian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship, Tromsø Research Foundation, EU:Horizon 2020 MSCA.