Weekly News
Rain or shine, every week, the Center for RNA Biomedicine publishes a newsletter, The RNA Transcript! It keeps the RNA community informed about each other, with featured scientists, new research and publications blogs, seminars, conferences, deadlines, job opportunities, and more!
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We would be glad to have your comments or story suggestions! Contact Allison Kintz at akintz@umich.edu.
2023
2022
- Grants Sprints: spark new ideas and catalyze energies toward your next collaborative RNA grant proposal
- Welcome Veronica Beck, U-M Medical School Research Administration Fellow
- Rachel Niederer joins U-M us as a faculty member in Biological Chemistry, the Center for RNA Biomedicine
- Martina Jerant awarded the Kay Beattie Outstanding Individual Employee Award
- Featured Researcher, Geoffrey Siwo, Internal Medicine and Center for Global Health Equity
- Renke Tan, Ph.D. Candidate, Biological Chemistry, RNA Student Postdoc Council member awarded Barbour Scholar
- “The RNA Function” a networking event for U-M trainees, Thursday, June 9, 2022 12-3pm
- Jay Querido joins U-M us as a faculty member in Biological Chemistry, the Center for RNA Biomedicine, and the LSI
- RNA Student Postdoc Council Pub Science Night
- Spotlight on RNA Therapeutics
- After COVID-19, mRNA vaccines could treat flu, HIV and even cancer, Nils Walter
- The breakthrough science of mRNA medicine, Melissa Moore, April 2022 TED Talk
- Symposium photos and survey
- Six U-M Researchers to present at the 6th RNA Annual RNA Symposium, Towards our Future of RNA Therapeutics
- RNA Center Manager, Martina Jerant, inducted into “Legends of the Ivy League” Hall of Fame
- Celebrating RNA Trainees!
- Save the dates: 2022 Seminar Speakers and Symposium Keynotes
2021
- A publication by Dr. Barmada and his team is “Editor’s pick” of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
- Congratulations to Rajesh Rao, M.D., for receiving a Career Advancement Award from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).
- A new publication by Sara Aton and James Delorme in PNAS: Unveiling the hidden cellular logistics of memory storage in neurons
(https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108534118) - Congratulations to Chase Weidmann, Ph.D., for receiving a K22 grant from NCI for “Unraveling the MALAT1 lncRNA-protein interaction networks that drive lung cancer metastasis”
- Congratulations to Amanda Garner, Ph.D., for receiving the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry 2022 David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry!
- The CRISPR Cas Casting
- Redefining long non-coding RNAs to study transposons in plants
- Thank you the RNA Society and Lexogen for our “RNA Salon!”
- Grants Sprints: spark new ideas and catalyze energies toward your next collaborative RNA grant proposal.
- Seeking U-M RNA scientists to present in the RNA Collaborative Seminar Series
- On National Postdoc Appreciation week, we warmly thank our RNA postdocs and are pleased to feature our Student Postdoc Council!
- The RNA Collaborative welcomes its 23rd partner!
- First step first: understanding normal processes before tackling pathologies, Adrien Chauvier, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Nils Walter’s lab, Chemistry, LSA
- Congratulations to the 2022 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ABSBBM) Annual Award winners
- Introducing Jun Hee Lee, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Medical School, a new member of the Center for RNA Biomedicine: video, and featured profile
- Join over 150 faculty in RNA sciences: The University of Michigan has three tenure-track positions for RNA scientists
- Introducing the RNA Student Postdoc Council’s RNA Tools & Techniques Video Series. The first video, titled “Total RNA Extraction,” (3 minutes) shows a basic technique for RNA extraction.
- How sleep loss sabotages new memory storage in the hippocampus
(Sleep loss drives acetylcholine- and somatostatin interneuron-mediated gating of hippocampal activity, to inhibit memory consolidation, James Delorme1, Lijing Wang, Femke Roig Kuhn, Varna Kodoth, Jingqun Ma , Jessy D. Martinez, Frank Raven, Brandon A. Toth, Vinodh Balendran, Alexis Vega Medina, Sha Jiang, Sara J. Aton, PNAS, 10.1073/pnas.2019318118)
- An often overlooked cause of genetic diseaseCited publications:
Gergics et al., High-throughput splicing assays identify missense and silent splice-disruptive POU1F1 variants underlying pituitary hormone deficiency, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.06.013.Vishnopolska et al., Comprehensive identification of pathogenic gene variants in patients with neuroendocrine disorders, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2021), doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgab177.
- The Center for RNA Biomedicine at the Regents’ Meeting
- The University of Michigan Biosciences Initiative
- Celebrate AUG1 with the RNA Society
- A call for direct sequencing of full-length RNAs to identify all modification
- Building a better scientific world with hands-on science – Sydney Rosenblum, graduate student in Dr. Amanda Garner’s lab
- This fall, further engage with the RNA community and join our RNA Student & Postdoc Council!
- “To Splice or not to Splice…” A press release for “Cotranscriptional splicing efficiencies differ within genes and between cell types,” Karan Bedi, Brian Magnuson, Ishwarya Venkata Narayanan, Michelle T. Paulsen, Thomas E. Wilson, and Mats Ljungman, RNA July 2021 27: 829-840; Published in Advance May 11, 2021, doi:10.1261/rna.078662.120
- We are on LinkedIn
- Dr. Amanda Garner, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and former member of our Executive Committee, co-leads a special issue of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters: “RNA: Opening New Doors in Medicinal Chemistry, a Special Issue.”
- The RNA Collaborative Seminar Series is on Discord!
- A warm thank you to LSA Technology Services!
- The Pandemic Academic Year
- Featured Scientist: Jun Hee Lee, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Medical School
- Happy Juneteenth!
- From foundation to application: Alyssa English, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Human Genetics
- Featured Scientist: Maha Hanafi, Ph.D., alumna, April 2021, Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy
- The RNA Collaborative celebrates its first year of success!
- Featured Scientist: Dawen Cai, Ph.D., Cell & Developmental Biology, Medical School, and Biophysics, LSA
- RNA holds the reins in bacteria: U-M researchers observe RNA controlling protein synthesis, A PNAS (April 2021) publication by Center for RNA Biomedicine members and collaborators Surajit Chatterjee, Adrien Chauvier, Shiba S. Dandpat, Irina Artsimovitch and Nils G. Walter.
- Featured Scientist: Ahmed Malik, Ph.D., MSTP fellow, Neuroscience Graduate Program and Department of Neurology Medical School
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Featured Researcher Profile
- From our 5th Annual Symposium: Advice to Trainees and Mentors
- Featured Scientist: Arushi Varshney, Ph.D., Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Medical School
- Our 5th Annual Symposium, titled “Processing RNA” is this week, March 25–26, 11:00-2:30
- Featured Scientist: Becky Glineburg, Ph.D., Postdoc, Neurology, Medical School
- How the time was just right for developing a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
- Featured Scientist: Megan Trotter, Ph.D. Candidate, Human Genetics, Medical School – Faculty: Sundeep Kalantry
- Announcing the “data blitz” awardees of our 5th Annual Symposium
- Giving Blueday is March 10. Watch our video, and give to support your RNA community.
- Featured Scientist: Karen Montoya, Ph.D. candidate, Chemistry, LSA
- Featuring our symposium speakers: Christopher Lima, Sloan Kettering Institute
- March 3, Webinar with Melissa Moore, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Moderna Therapeutics, “A timely confluence: the backstory of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine” – MiSciBlog is available here
- RNA research brings hope to 30 million patients, an interview with Dr. Antonellis, Chair of the U-M Department of Human Genetics, on the occasion of Rare Disease Day, February 28
- Featuring our symposium speakers: Kevin Weeks, University of North Carolina
- Featuring our symposium keynote speakers: Feng Zhang, Ph.D., MIT, “Exploration of Biological Diversity to Discover Novel Molecular Technologies,” Thursday, March 25, 1:35–2:30
- Ameya Jalihal, Ph.D.: “Zooming in to zoom out: learning from molecules to understand life”
- Upcoming webinar: February 10, 2021, 4:00– 5:00pm EST. “A timely confluence: the backstory of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine” with Melissa Moore, Chief Scientific Officer at Moderna Therapeutics. Under Dr. Moore’s scientific leadership, Moderna Therapeutics developed one of the two mRNA-based vaccines authorized for emergency use in the US. MORE INFORMATION
- Repurposing Prostate Cancer Drug for COVID-19
- Featured Scientist: Tasha Thong, Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health
- “The CRISPR Craze: Scientific Breakthroughs Come to the Prepared when Least Expected”
- Featured Scientist: Daniel Wilinski, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology