The RNA Transcript, December 6, 2021
Sami Barmada, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurology and member of the Center for RNA Biomedicine, with Nathaniel Safren, Ph.D., from Northwestern University, and other UM colleagues, was awarded "Editor's pick" by the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC). This recognition signals "a top-rated paper published in JBC across the field of biological chemistry, as determined by JBC's Associate Editors, Editorial Board Members and other referees."

In this article, Barmada and his team are interested in autophagy activity, a pathway responsible for mediating the breakdown of cellular proteins and organelles. Autophagy can be compared to a cellular cleaning service, and its dysfunction is associated with many diseases including cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

Although autophagy plays an important role in cellular biology, to this day, methods to accurately measure its activity were limited and somewhat unreliable. The Barmada team developed a novel biochemical technique that uses protein fluorescent tags inserted into the genome via CRISPR Cas9. This method enables accurate and sensitive assessments of autophagy in living cells by optical pulse labeling, a noninvasive approach that can be used in living cells.

“Autophagy has received a great deal of attention because of its therapeutic implications for neurodegenerative and other age-related conditions,” says lead author Dr. Barmada. “Even so, our ability to accurately track autophagy activity or flux has been severely limited by the available tools. Here, we leveraged CRISPR/Cas9 to label an autophagy-related protein in human cells, allowing us for the first time to actually see autophagy in action, and measure flux in a quantitative and reliable fashion.”
Paper cited:
"Development of a specific live-cell assay for native autophagic flux," Nathaniel Safren, Elizabeth
M. Tank, Ahmed M. Malik, Jason P. Chua, Nicholas Santoro, Sami J. Barmada, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Volume 297, Issue 3, 101003, September 2021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101003
Learn more about Dr. Barmada's research in RNA Translated 2021!

18 U-M scientists and scholars present their research on three RNA therapeutics areas: mRNA vaccines, ASOs, and CRISPR. The second half of the magazine highlights the main activities of the Center for the July 2020–June 2021 period.

Special thanks to all our contributors!

RNA Translated is available on line (flipbook) and in an interactive downloadable pdf format. You can also request a free printed copy.
Congratulations to Rajesh Rao, M.D., for receiving a Career Advancement Award from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).
The Career Advancement Award assists outstanding early-career vision scientists in pursuit of ongoing research of unusual significance and promise. This one-time award is available to candidates who have already received their first NIH R01 and are collecting new data to apply for a second R01. 

See also:
"Sustaining Independent Careers in Vision Research: Demographics and Success in Second R01 Attainment Among Clinician–Scientists from 1985 to 2019," Elaine A. Liu; Sophia Y. Wang; Rajesh C. Rao, Translational Vision Science & Technology November 2020, Vol.9, 32. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.12.32
Monday, December 6, 1:00 pm ET, BSRB - ABC Seminar room | University of Michigan, Chromatin Club Monthly Seminar

Faculty Talk: "Structural biology in-situ"
Trainee Talk: "Aberrant Silencing of Ribosomal DNA Initiates a Global Stress Response that Promotes Epigenetic Adaptation"
Ajay Larkin (Ragunathan lab)
Tuesday, December 7, 12:00 pm ET, Zoom | University of Michigan, Department of Biological Chemistry Seminar
 
"Multiplexable RNA Detection by Cas9 Paves the Way for Novel COVID Testing Method"
Chase Beisel, Ph.D., Helmholtz Center for infection Research
Wednesday, December 8, 8:15 am ET, Zoom | University of Michigan, Pediatric Hematology Oncology/BMT Research Meeting, Virtual Grand Round

"Translating the Cancer Genome: Dark Matter Proteins"
John Prensner, M.D., Ph.D., Instructor, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Attending Physician, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Wednesday, December 8, 10:00 am ET, M3330 Medical Science Building I | University of Michigan, Cellular & Molecular Biology, Dissertation Defense

"Revisiting the Role of Sperm Protamine Proteins in Organismal Development and Fertility"
Lindsay Moritz, Doctorate Candidate
Wednesday, December 8, 2:00 pm ET, BSRB Kahn Auditorium | University of Michigan, Cell & Developmental Biology, Dissertation Defense

"Differential Impact of a Telomeropathy-Causing Mutation in Shelterin Protein TPP1 on Mouse Hematopoiesis and Germline"
Jacqueline Graniel, Doctorate Candidate
Wednesday, December 8, 3:00 pm ET, North Lecture Hall, Medical Sciences Building II | University of Michigan, Human Genetics, Dissertation Defense

"Neurofibromin 2 (NF2) Is Necessary for Efficient Silencing of Line-1 Retrotransposition Events in Human Embryonic Carcinoma Cells"
Trenton Frisbie, Doctorate Candidate
Thursday, December 9–12 | IEEE BIBM 2021 Workshop on Long Non-Coding RNAs Mechanism, Function and Computational Analysis (BIBM-LncRNA)

Workshop Program
Thursday, December 9, 10:00 am ET, Zoom and Medical Sciences Building II | University of Michigan, Biophysics, Dissertation Defense

"ATP-independent Chaperone: Beyond a Holdase"
Kevin Wu, Doctorate Candidate
Friday, December 10, 10:00 am ET, Zoom, Medical Sciences Building II (MSII) | University of Michigan, Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, Dissertation Defense

"Post-transcriptional and Translational Regulation of Autophagy"
Zhangyuan Yin, Doctorate Candidate
Monday, December 13, 4:00-5:00 pm ET, Zoom, and BSRB, ABC seminar rooms | University of Michigan Center for RNA Biomedicine, RNA Faculty Candidate Seminar
Co-hosted with the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

“Resolving the Localisation and Dynamics of mRNA and Protein Synthesis within Neurons”
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Synaptic Plasticity
 
For press releases and blog articles about your upcoming top journal publications, please
contact Elisabeth Paymal.

Our members' publications are available through Altmetric. Sept queries are currently available: CRISPR, microRNA, molecule, RNA, RNA therapeutics, transcriptome, and translation. Please make sure to have at least one of these keywords in your title. Below is a recent highlight.
Extracellular Vesicles in Serum and Central Nervous System Tissues Contain microRNA Signatures in Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Ting-wen Lo, Claudia Figueroa-Romero, Junguk Hur, Crystal Pacut, Evan Stoll, Calvin Spring, Rose Lewis, Athul Nair, Stephen A. Goutman, Stacey A. Sakowski, Sunitha Nagrath and Eva L. Feldman, Front. Mol. Neurosci., 29 October 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2021.739016

Introduction
... Results from the current study provide a foundation for leveraging miRNA cargo from circulating EVs as a reflection of pathological EV signatures in ALS CNS tissue, generating new insight into possible pathogenic factors and untapped diagnostic opportunities.
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