Executive Committee - 2025-2026 - Center for RNA Biomedicine

The Executive Committee consists of eight U-M faculty representing different departments across three colleges and school. The committee supports the implementation of the mission of the Center for RNA Biomedicine.

Lydia Freddolino, Ph.D.

The regulatory networks of bacteria play a key role in their information processing capabilities, coordinating and executing interactions with their environments. Quantitative, predictive models of these networks would be tremendously beneficial for facilitating the development of new antimicrobial therapies, enabling synthetic biology applications, and understanding bacterial evolution and ecology. Ultimately, the aim of my laboratory is to build a multiscale framework enabling modeling of bacterial regulatory networks at any level of detail, from atomistic to cellular. To this end, we develop and apply high-throughput experimental methods for measuring biomolecular interactions and cellular regulatory states in vivo, and for profiling the phenotypic consequences of regulatory changes. In tandem with these experimental approaches, we use molecular simulation and mathematical modeling to obtain high-resolution insight into the biomolecular interactions driving regulatory networks, and the systems-level effects of altering them.

More information and publication list are available on the Freddolino lab website.

Sundeep Kalantry, Ph.D.

The focus of Kalantry laboratory is to understand how X-chromosome inactivation occurs. X-inactivation equalizes X-linked gene expression between male and female mammals by transcriptionally inactivating one of the two X-chromosomes in females. X-inactivation is required for the viability of female cells and is a paradigm of epigenetic inheritance, given that within a shared nucleoplasm one X-chromosome of an identical pair becomes inactivated while the other remains active and that replicated copies of the inactive and active X-chromosomes faithfully maintain their transcriptional states across many cell division cycles. X-inactivation is controlled by long non-coding RNAs and chromatin/transcription regulators, both of which are a focus of our lab.

Sarah Kargbo-Hill, Ph.D.

In the Kargbo-Hill lab, we are investigating how neurons regulate RNA metabolism and how
defects in these processes contribute to age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Our research
focuses on the RNA-binding protein, TDP-43, which is implicated in nearly all cases of
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and half of Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). TDP-43 plays
critical roles in RNA metabolism including as a repressor of cryptic splicing events. Upon loss of
TDP-43 hundreds of regions of introns, termed cryptic exons, become derepressed and spliced
into the mature RNA, often resulting in instability and down-regulation of RNA and protein
products. One focus of our group is to uncover how the hundreds of splicing events impact
neuronal health, function and disease-associated pathways. To address these questions, we
use techniques including human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons, CRISPR
interference (CRISPRi), and we employ a combination of forward genetic screens, proteomics,
and RNA sequencing to delve into the complexities of neuronal gene regulation.

You can find more information at our website: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/kargbohill-lab/

Rachel Niederer, Ph.D.

Bio to come

John Prensner, M.D., Ph.D.

“The Prensner Lab focuses on understanding the molecular underpinnings of cancer by investigating RNA biology, including gene transcription and gene translation. The lab has developed high-throughput approaches to classify ribosome activity across cancer transcriptomes. In doing so, the Prensner Lab has made key observations on the translation of noncanonical open reading frames in cancer, looking about both their regulatory roles and their encoded microproteins. The biological and therapeutic implications for microproteins in cancer is a central interest for ongoing work in the group. In addition, the Prensner lab is interested in identifying small molecule and immune-based therapies that may target improper RNA translation in cancer.”

Jay Brito Querido, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Life Sciences Institute and Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry, Medical School, Faculty Scholar, Center for RNA Biomedicine
jquerido@umich.edu

Jay Brito Querido, Ph.D.

Bio to come

Chase Weidmann, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry, Medical School, Faculty Scholar, Center for RNA Biomedicine
cweidman@umich.edu

Chase Weidmann, Ph.D.

In an average human cell, a large majority (> 80 %) of the genome is transcribed into RNA. A small fraction (< 5 %) of those transcripts are translated into proteins, while the remaining “noncoding” RNAs can assemble into a variety of RNA-protein complexes that govern transcription, splicing, translation, and other critical functions. Importantly, functions have been assigned to very few noncoding RNAs, and the fundamental principles of how noncoding RNAs work are still being elaborated. The Weidmann laboratory employs chemical probing and mutational profiling, essentially adding RNA-reactive chemicals to cells and using a sequencing readout to report on the structure and behavior of those RNAs. We couple these readouts with a variety of cell-based phenotypic assays to connect RNA structure and function in the study of disease (long noncoding RNAs driving lung cancer) and in fundamental biology (RNA modifications and RNA localization). We are also adapting chemical probing technologies for the development of RNA-targeting therapeutics. The ultimate goal is to understand principles of noncoding RNA assemblies that we might target them to manipulate biological outcomes.

Lab Website -> https://rnalab.med.umich.edu/

Yan Zhang, Ph.D.

CRISPR-Cas is a RNA-guided, genetic interference pathway in prokaryotes that enables acquired immunity against invasive nucleic acids. Nowadays, CRISPRs also provide formidable tools for facile, programmable genome engineering in eukaryotes. Cas9 proteins are the “effector” endonucleases for CRISPR interference; and have recently begun to be also recognized as important players in other aspects of bacterial physiology (e.g., acquisition of new spacers into CRISPRs, endogenous gene regulation, microbial pathogenesis). The Yan Zhang laboratory is broadly interested in CRISPR biology and mechanism. We use Neisseria species as our model system, and E. coli and human cells as additional platforms. We employ complementary biochemical, microbiological, genetic and genomic approaches. We are also interested in working with the broader scientific community to develop and apply novel CRISPR-based tools to tackle diverse biological questions.