The RNA Transcript, February 15, 2021
TODAY, Monday, February 15, 4:00–5:00 pm EST | U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine, RNA Innovation Seminar Series

“Dynamics of co-transcriptional pre-mRNA processing and assembly of related biomolecular condensates”
Karla Neugebauer, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and of Cell Biology, Director, Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine, Yale School of Medicine

Moderator: Mats Ljungman, Ph.D., Radiological Oncology, Medical School, co-director of the U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine
Chemical Biology, College of LSA
Faculty Mentors: Kristin Koutmou and Markos Koutmos

I am primarily interested structurally characterizing the interactions between RNA and RNA modifying enzymes using x-ray crystallography. Post transcriptional modification of RNA is widespread and ubiquitous, adding a layer of chemical diversity previously inaccessible to RNA. Modification of protein coding, messenger RNA (mRNA) is especially interesting to me, as it represents a novel and largely unexplored system of gene regulation. The bulk of my work thus far has been with the pseudouridine synthase (PUS) family of proteins – responsible for isomerizing uridine to pseudouridine in mRNA, tRNA, snRNA, rRNA, etc.
Tuesday, February 16, 3:00 pm EST | U-M Human Genetics, Medical School, CMB short course (free)

"Common and Rare Regulatory Variation in Genetic Disease"
Stephen Montgomery, Ph.D., Departments of Pathology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
Tuesday, February 16, 7:00 pm EST | Center for RNA Science at Institute for Basic Sciences (IBS) and Seoul National University (SNU)

Mini-Symposia series on "RNA Biology & Therapeutics"
Howard Chang (Stanford), Joshua Mendell (UTSW), Miao-Chih Tsai (Cell)
Wednesday, February 17, 10:00 am EST | U-M Molecular & Cellular Pathology, Medical School

"Characterizing and Targeting the Chromatin Determinants of Cancer Cell Identity"
Abhijit Parolia, Ph.D. Candidate, Advisor: Arul M Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D.
Tuesday, February 23, 3:00 pm EST | Harvard Medical School Initiative for RNA Medicine Technology Showcase
ZOOM Password: 759932

“Insights into mRNA lifecycle revealed by true end-to-end sequencing of single RNA molecules”
Wednesday, February 24, 9 AM ET | RNA Collaborative Seminar Series, hosted by Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI)

"Structural and molecular basis for Cardiovirus 2A protein as a viral gene expression switch"

"The SARS-CoV-2 RNA–protein interactome in infected human cells"
Moderator: Redmond Smyth, Ph.D.
Wednesday, March 3, 4:00– 5:00 pm EST | U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine
(This event is re-scheduled from February 10, 2021)
Scientists and non-scientists are welcome.


“A timely confluence: the backstory of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine”
Melissa Moore, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Moderna Therapeutics

This webinar is hosted by the University of Michigan Center for RNA Biomedicine within the RNA Collaborative Seminar Series that groups 20 RNA research centers and institutions worldwide. It is supported by The RNA Society. 

 
Contact Elisabeth Paymal for press releases and blog articles of your upcoming publications. MORE INFORMATION

Our members' publications are available through Altmetric. Five queries are currently available: "RNA," "microRNA," "Transcriptome," "Translation," and "Molecule." Please make sure to have at least one of these key words in your title or abstract. Below are recent highlights.
Evidence for a dominant-negative mechanism in HARS1-mediated peripheral neuropathy, Meyer-Schuman R, Antonellis A., FEBS J. 2021 Jan;288(1):91-94. doi: 10.1111/febs.15538. Epub 2020 Sep 17. PMID: 32940403.

Abstract: The pathogenic mechanism of neuropathy‐associated aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetase (ARS) gene variants is poorly defined. Mullen et al. generate new models of pathogenic, dominant HARS1 mutations and show that they increase eIF2α phosphorylation and decrease protein translation in neurons. These results are consistent with a dominant‐negative mechanism of ARS‐mediated peripheral neuropathy.
Multi-trait transcriptome-wide association studies with probabilistic Mendelian randomization, Lu Liu, Ping Zeng, Fuzhong Xue, Zhongshang Yuan, Xiang Zhou, American Journal of Human Genetics, January 2021, DOI10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.12.006Pubmed ID33434493

Keywords: Transcriptome-wide association studies, multiple traits, probabilistic Mendelian randomization, PRM, pleiotropy, UK Biobank, blood pressure
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