Nuclear Structure & Function

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The laboratory studies ribonucleoproteins including the eukaryotic reverse transcriptase telomerase. Telomerase adds simple-sequence repeats to chromosome ends by copying a template within its RNA subunit. This telomeric repeat synthesis balances the loss of repeats that occurs with each cycle of genome replication. Cells that do not activate enough telomerase, including most human cells, lose telomeric repeats with every cell division. When telomeric repeat number reaches a critical minimum, short telomeres signal for cell senescence or death. Cancer cells escape this proliferation barrier by activating telomerase. We study telomerase both in vitro, to understand the structural and biochemical principles of this RNA-protein enzyme, and in vivo, to define the complex cellular regulation of telomerase-telomere interaction. We are also investigating the principles of RNA and protein coordination in biological pathways of RNA silencing. Questions of particular interest include how an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase selects specific transcripts as aberrant, in order to target the corresponding loci for silencing, and how RNA silencing effector RNPs are specialized and coordinated in function.