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But we’re not just changing outcomes for individuals — we’re building a vibrant, collaborative community of researchers, clinicians, and students. We foster cross-disciplinary partnerships and mentor the next generation of RNA scientists in an inclusive, equitable environment. By leveraging Michigan’s strengths in single-cell biophysics, molecular biology, and clinical research, we’re accelerating discoveries from the lab bench to the bedside.

With your support, we can acquire the essential equipment and resources needed to translate scientific breakthroughs into real-world treatments. Together, we can turn scientific possibility into hope — and hope into healing — for families everywhere.

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The University of Michigan’s 10th Annual RNA Symposium, “RNA Frontiers: From Mechanisms to Medicine,” brought an international community together to spotlight the newest advances at the intersection of RNA biology, technology, and therapeutic development. Through keynote talks from leaders including Shelley Berger, Nils Walter, Erik Sontheimer, Karla Neugebauer, Sarah Woodson, and Madeleine Oudin, attendees got a rapid-fire view of where the field is headed — and why RNA biomedicine continues to be one of the fastest paths from discovery to impact.

Correspondents from the Michigan Science Writers (MiSciWriters) were once again on hand to cover the symposium. Also celebrating their 10th Anniversary this fall, MiSciWriters is a graduate student organization at the University of Michigan whose goal is to train fellow graduate students & post-doctoral fellows in science writing and editing.

For live, on-the-ground coverage from the MiSciWriters, visit https://misciwriters.com/.

On Saturday afternoon, the Speaker Panel Discussion looked ahead to the future of RNA science and medicine, with candid reflections on scientific careers and the lessons senior researchers most want the next generation to carry forward. The result was a fitting capstone to the 10th anniversary: a symposium that celebrated discovery, centered people, and made the path from mechanisms to medicine feel not just possible, but already underway.

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Save the date for next year’s symposium, March 3-5, 2027!

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Thanks for joining us for the Film Screening and Panel Discussion event on Thursday, October 23, 2025 at the Michigan Theater! The evening drew a diverse audience of U-M students, faculty and staff, center supporters, members of the local community and family and friends of the filmmakers.

The screening of the new documentary Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution, was followed by an engaging discussion with University of Michigan experts in RNA science, medicine and the biotech industry partnerships.

And many thanks to our panelists Dr. Amanda Garner, Dr. Muneesh Tewari, Dr. Nils Walter, and moderator Kate Remus, Senior Associate Director & Business Development Group Lead, University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships.

The conversation included projections about what the future holds for the biotech industry, what direction that will take, and the important lessons that can be learned about how best to integrate the next wave of technology: Artificial Intelligence.

Thanks to everyone at the Michigan Theater and Marquee Arts, the filmmakers, producer, Uncommon Productions and co-host U-M Innovation Partnerships for making this such a terrific event!

See you at the 10th Annual RNA Symposium March 6-7, 2026!

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Helton, the first graduate student to join the lab, worked closely with Principal Investigator Stephanie Moon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Center for RNA Biomedicine Faculty Scholar, and Research Scientist Benjamin Dodd. Their findings, published in Genes & Development, represent the Moon Lab’s first research paper authored exclusively by lab members — a significant milestone.

“We’ve published reviews before, but this is the first research paper from my lab written solely by Moon Lab members, and such a short author list is rare these days,” says Moon. 

For several years, Moon’s research has focused on how cells respond to stress.

In healthy cells, most RNA molecules are covered with ribosomes, which function like miniature factories, translating genetic instructions in RNA into the proteins essential for cellular function.

However, certain mRNAs (messenger RNAs) need to be expressed during stress to help the cell recover and adapt. 

“These specialized mRNAs are like emergency vehicles speeding toward a wreck on an interstate highway where they can quickly respond,” says Moon. “The ‘regular’ traffic (other mRNAs) is sent off the road (into granules) during the crisis.”

Before this study, it wasn’t clear if or how these specialized mRNAs were kept out of stress granules.  While many studies hinted that translation of these mRNAs during stress would exclude them from stress granules, other recent studies found evidence that these mRNAs could translate inside stress granules.  

The Moon Lab showed that these vital mRNAs escape stress granules by interacting with ribosomes. Trapping these mRNAs in stress granules would halt their protein production at a time when the cell may need them most. 

To test this, Helton and the team used chemical inhibitors, single molecule imaging of cellular mRNAs, live-cell imaging with fluorescent proteins, and engineered RNA “reporters.” They confirmed that the presence of a uORF leads to greater ribosome association with mRNAs under stress.

Their experiments showed that removing the uORF resulted in a loss of ribosome association, and the RNA was then much more likely to end up in a stress granule.

Surprisingly, they also found that even just one ribosome lingering on an mRNA is enough to protect the mRNA from condensation into a granule.

Scientists had previously thought that an RNA strand needed to have multiple ribosomes attached to avoid being silenced in a stress granule. The new findings from the Moon Lab turn that theory on its head, that even a single ribosome is sufficient to keep an mRNA out of stress granules and allow it to continue making proteins.

Read more about Dr. Stephanie Moon’s work in the article, “Under Pressure,” in the 2025 issue of RNA Translated.

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In a new study, Lead Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Cianfrocco and his team demonstrated that HIV can bind directly to dynein motor proteins, using them as a means of intracellular trafficking to navigate efficiently within the host cell, facilitating its replication and spread.

Dynein motor proteins are also used by cells to transport RNA molecules to specific sites, which are essential for proper protein synthesis and regulation. 

By revealing how HIV commandeers dynein, the research not only advances our knowledge of viral infections but also underscores the critical role of cellular transport mechanisms in both health and disease.

The findings were published June 18 in a new article in Science Advances, “HIV-1 binds dynein directly to hijack microtubule transport machinery,” Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn6796

Read the full story by Emily Kagey, Director of LSI Marketing and Communications, University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute.

Cover image: Photo by Leisa Thompson Photography, provided by the U-M Life Sciences Institute.

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Center for RNA Biomedicine (CRB) affiliate faculty Alexandra Piotrowski-Daspit, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Internal Medicine — Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, is the principal investigator on a $500K Program Development Award granted in August 2024 from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) to support the evolution of a CF research center of excellence.

The representatives met with five awardees whose pilot experiments were selected for seed funding by the grant, including two CRB affiliate faculty members. Executive Committee member Yan Zhang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Biological Chemistry, presented her progress on CRISPR gene-editing technologies for CF, and affiliate Guizhi (Julian) Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, outlined advances in developing novel pulmonary circular RNA (circRNA) for CF.

Prior to the development award, Piotrowski-Daspit teamed up with CRB RNA Therapeutics Director Michelle Hastings, Ph.D., Pfizer Upjohn Research Professor of Pharmacology, and CRB affiliate Rachel Niederer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry, on a $3 million Collaborative Research Grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Hastings heads the interdisciplinary initiative as lead Principal Investigator. The collaborative grant project aims to develop RNA therapeutics to combat cystic fibrosis and rare CF-associated genetic variants.

In October 2024, Piotrowski-Daspit hosted an Open House to present a two-year plan for laying the groundwork for housing a CF Basic Research Center at Michigan. The event drew over 30 faculty members with an interest in or whose current work involves CF research.

BME is a joint department with the College of Engineering and Michigan Medical School. In her article, Santillan points out the groundswell of interdisciplinary collaboration the CF grant has fostered across campus, and how Michigan is uniquely positioned to lead a project uniting a broad spectrum of research specialities.

Read the full story, Building Community Around Cystic Fibrosis Research at U-M by Michele Santillan, on the University of Michigan Department of Biomedical Engineering website.

To learn more about the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, visit www.cff.org.

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BY PAUL AVEDISIAN  

The Single Molecule Analysis in Real-Time (SMART) Center, one of two shared-use core facilities of the Center for RNA Biomedicine at the University of Michigan, has been awarded a $1.6 million instrument grant from the National Institutes of Health for a LUMICKS C-Trap^Ⓡ optical tweezers machine with super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, marking a major upgrade in technology.

“The NIH award represents a $1.6 million enhancement of the initial U-M Biosciences Initiative $10.2 million investment in the Center for RNA Biomedicine and SMART Center,” says Nils Walter, Ph.D., Center Director and primary author of the proposal. 

Initiated by Walter, the instrument grant was submitted to the NIH in collaboration with scientists from the U-M, Michigan State University, Oakland University, and the Van Andel Institute to serve as a local high-tech hub and resource. The funds will be allocated to purchase the equipment, and for delivery, installation, training, and a five-year service contract. 

SMART Center Manager Damon Hoff, Ph.D., says, “The C-Trap^Ⓡ is a commercial system that is extremely  user-friendly, has expansive capabilities, is open to researchers across the university – including faculty members of the Center for RNA Biomedicine – and is a technology not currently available anywhere else on campus or in the state of Michigan.” 

To observe the kinetic and mechanical work of molecules, the C-Trap^Ⓡ is equipped with four optical traps, giving it a lot of flexibility. Optical traps, or optical tweezers, work by holding in place or “trapping” microscopic glass or plastic spheres approximately one micrometer in size. Investigators place or “stretch” the object they wish to study – proteins, RNA, DNA or protein droplets, for example – between these two “beads.” This allows scientists to directly observe and measure the forces at play in the molecule(s) held between those two traps.

With regular fluorescence imaging, molecules lined up on a piece of RNA that are 100 nanometers apart would appear as a smear. With STED, scientists are able to resolve each individual molecule due to the much higher resolution. The objects you can see are now much smaller.

The C-Trap^Ⓡ will allow scientists to set up their experiments step by step, and easily change solutions for a smooth, sequential flow, such as introducing a protein to see how it interacts. It also includes temperature control, to conduct experiments for any temperature-dependent biological process, and measure activity under a variety of conditions such as room temperature, physiological temperature, and so forth. 

A LUMICKS team will travel to Ann Arbor in July for a pre-installation site visit, with the new C-Trap^Ⓡ taking up permanent residency sometime in the next six months. The machine’s user-friendly interface will require minimal training to get researchers fully up to speed, and SMART Center staff are always on hand to assist and help set up experiments.

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Congratulations to Adrien Chauvier, Ph.D., one of 12 staff members from across the University of Michigan recognized by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) for their outstanding service and leadership in advancing research, scholarship and creative practice.

Known collectively as The Research Staff Recognition Awards, Chauvier was honored with the Research Associate/Assistant/Technician Recognition Award for his work as the Senior Research Lab Specialist in the Nils Walter Lab, Department of Chemistry, College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

“I am deeply honored to receive such a prestigious award!” Chauvier said.

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The Center for RNA Biomedicine will present two talks:

“High-Throughput Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors Targeting OncoMiR-181a for Cancer Therapy.”

This talk will be presented by Grace McIntyre, Ph.D. Student, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan. Grace is a student in the DiFeo Lab.

The second talk will be presented by Adrien Chauvier, Ph.D., Research Lab Specialist, Nils Walter Laboratory – Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, RNA Center for Biomedicine.

“Real-time Monitoring of Ligand Recognition by a Riboswitch during Transcription”

The center will share hosting with the University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology, which will present the following talk:

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