RNA Faculty Spotlight – Laura Scott, Ph.D., Biostatistics, Public Health

Laura Scott, Ph.D. Research Professor Biostatistics School of Public Health email: ljst@umich.edu What are your research interests? I want to understand how a persons sex, genetics and physiology influences both gene expression and degradation to create differences in gene expression between people, and how differences in gene expression influence disease. Who/what brought you to science?…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Stephen Parker, Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics and Human Genetics

Stephen C.J. Parker, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics Department of Human Genetics Contact Lab website Research interests We study the effects of genetic variation on chromatin architecture and transcriptional regulation at single-cell resolution. Our research group uses an integrative approach in the general fields of computational biology and functional genomics. The…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Zhonggang Hou, Biological Chemistry

Zhonggang Hou, Ph.D. Research Investigator Biological Chemistry Medical School Yan Zhang lab CRISPR-Cas is a very diverse adaptive immune system found in bacteria and archaea. It uses a small RNA as guide to find and destroy its target. It has revolutionized the field of genome engineering once adapted as tools for use in Eukaryotes. However,…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Sami Barmada, Neurology

Sami Barmada, M.D., Ph.D. Associate professor Neurology, Medical School Website What is the role of RNA in your research? RNA homeostasis is crucial for neuronal function and health. We study the regulation of RNA and protein homeostasis, and how abnormalities in these processes lead to neurodegenerative diseases. The image shows two neurons — the one…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Amanda Garner, Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy

Amanda Garner Associate Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy Member of our Executive Committee   Lab Website Twitter: @ALGchembio The Garner Laboratory uses chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and molecular and cellular biology approaches to investigate the high-risk/high-reward areas of targeting microRNAs, RNA-protein and protein-protein interactions for probe and drug discovery. These efforts are part of…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Sara Aton, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

  Sara Aton, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology College of LSA Lab Website Google Scholar profile ResearchGate profile Research interests The functions of sleep are a major unsolved mystery in modern biology. Increasing evidence suggests that sleep is by and for the brain, and our lab is focused on understanding what sleep…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Alan Boyle, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, and Human Genetics

Alan Boyle Assistant Professor Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics Human Genetics Lab Website Twitter: @AP_Boyle Michigan Experts   What are your research interests? My research group uses computational and wet lab techniques to study how genes are controlled in human cells. We have a large focus on how human variation can change this control and how…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Analisa DiFeo, Pathology and Ob/Gyn

  Analisa DiFeo, Ph.D.  Associate Professor Pathology and Ob/Gyn Michigan Medicine Twitter Faculty page DiFeo Lab LinkedIn Google Scholar Research Interests: Using a combination of in vitro and in vivo approaches, my lab hopes to better understand the mechanism by which both microRNA’s and the genes they regulate are involved in ovarian tumor biology at…

RNA Faculty Spotlight — Dan Peltier, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Daniel Peltier M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Lecturer Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Video profile My scientific and clinical interests include discovering ways to modulate the immune system to help ameliorate childhood disease, especially high-risk pediatric malignancies. Currently, I am working with Dr. Reddy investigating novel ways RNA molecules impact T cell biology and alloimmunity. One aspect of this work…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Sarah Keane, Biophysics and Chemistry

  Sarah Keane, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biophysics, William R. Roush Assistant Professor of Chemistry Biophysics and Department of Chemistry College of LSA https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/keane-lab/ @KeaneLab The Keane’s lab is interested in understanding how RNA molecules fold and how their three-dimensional structures impact function. RNAs play a number of different regulatory roles in health and disease…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Amanda Garner, Medicinal Chemistry

Amanda Garner, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Medicinal Chemistry The Garner Laboratory is developing novel high-throughput screening assays for the discovery of chemical probes for targeting microRNAs and microRNA-microRNA-binding protein interactions. In addition, we are engaged in the discovery of new microRNA-binding proteins using chemical biology and proteomic approaches. Visit Lab Website Follow on Twitter:…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Vivian G. Cheung, M.D., Pediatrics and Human Genetics

Vivian G. Cheung, M.D. Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Pediatric Research Research Professor, U-M Life Sciences Institute Professor of Pediatrics, U-M Medical School Professor of Human Genetics, U-M Medical School Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute We study regulation of transcription; in particular, RNA-DNA sequence differences, RNA polymerase pausing and R-loop. We are interested in the…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Monica Dus, MCDB

Monica Dus, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology The Dus lab is interested in understanding how the environment reshapes brain and behavior. To this end we are studying how diet changes the physiology of the brain by altering metabolic-epigenetic pathways at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, and how this,…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – JK Nandakumar, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Jayakrishnan Nandakumar, Ph.D. Associate Professor Departments of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology We are interested in the biogenesis, trafficking, recruitment to telomeres, and catalytic mechanism of the RNP enzyme telomerase. We are also investigating other noncoding RNAs that are involved in gene regulation. Visit Lab Website Follow on Twitter: @LabNandakumar   What are your research…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Kaushik Ragunathan, Biological Chemistry

Kaushik Ragunathan Assistant Professor Department of Biological Chemistry My lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms that define how the combinatorial logic of histone modifications and its dynamic interactions with histone binding proteins encodes stable and heritable patterns of gene expression. We take a multidisciplinary perspective that synthesizes genetics, biochemistry and biophysical approaches to capture…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Charlie Brooks, Biophysics and Chemistry

Charles L. Brooks III Cyrus Levinthal Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics Warner-Lambert/Park-Davis Professor of Chemistry Professor of Biophysics, Director of Biophysics Our group studies RNA structure, dynamics and folding using both all atom and coarse grained models. Current interests involve the assembly of the ribosome and it’s functional dynamics, the folding of complex…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Evan Keller

  We explore single cell transcriptomes through single cell RNASeq. Primarily focused on cancer. Visit Website What are your research interests? I am interested in the interaction between the cancer and the microenvironment. This includes exploring how both macromolecules and physical forces modulate cancer growth. In addition, our lab focuses on single cell analysis technologies…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Xiang Zhou, Biostatistics

Xiang Zhou, Ph.D. Associate Professor Departments of Biostatistics We develop statistical methods and computational tools for analyzing array based or sequencing based RNA studies. Example application areas include differential expression analysis, removing batch effects, controlling for individual relatedness or population stratification, single cell RNA sequencing studies. Visit Lab Website Follow on Twitter: @xzlab_org   What…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Andrew Ludlow, School of Kinesiology

  Andrew Ludlow, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Movement Science Director, Integrative Molecular Genetics Laboratory School of Kinesiology   Broadly, my laboratory studies telomere and telomerase biology. We are interested in the gene expression regulation of telomere maintaining genes, such as telomerase component hTERT. We focus on the gene expression regulation by alternative RNA splicing by studying…

RNA Faculty Spotlight – Aaron Frank, Biophysics and Chemistry

Aaron Frank, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Departments of Biophysics and Chemistry In order to understand the relationship between molecular structure and dynamics and biological function, the Frank research group seeks to develop and deploy integrative modeling tools to elucidate the structure and dynamics of biologically relevant molecules. We are primarily interested in using our methods to…