Weekly News Archive (2020-2021)
RNA Transcript 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
The RNA Transcript, 2020
- The RNA Collaborative Seminar Series welcomes its 17th and 18th partners, the Cambridge RNA Club (UK) and the Groupe de Recherche RNA (GDR RNA – France).
- Featured Scientist: Laura Scott, Ph.D., Biostatistics, School of Public Health
- A Washington Post video, “How mRNA helped scientists create a COVID-19 vaccine in record time,” with Alice Telesnitsky, Microbiology and Immunology, and Nils G. Walter, Chemistry, Biophysics & Biological Chemistry and co-director of the Center for RNA Biomedicine, explain how RNA research allows to save millions of lives with an RNA vaccine, and why it is possible to have a vaccine so quickly.
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 Lectures by laureates E. Charpentier and J. Doudna
- Aaron Frank receives NSF Grant
- The Win-Win of Mentoring and Advising
- Sara Aton and Laura Scott join our Executive Committee
- Publication: Broad noncoding transcription suggests genome surveillance by RNA polymerase V, Masayuki Tsuzuki, Shriya Sethuraman, Adriana N. Coke, M. Hafiz Rothi, Alan P. Boyle, and Andrzej T. Wierzbicki, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, first published November 16, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014419117
- Featured Scientist: Zhonggang Hou, Ph.D., Research investigator, Biological Chemistry, Medical School
- Publication: Classification and segmentation of single-molecule fluorescence time traces with deep learning, Jieming Li, Leyou Zhang, Alexander Johnson-Buck and Nils G. Walter, Nature Communications, (2020)11:5833, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19673-1
- Dr. DiFeo and Dr. Alumkal join the U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine (VIDEO)
- Rare disease collaboration receives NIH funding for a new Center for Fragile X disease. An interview with Dr. Peter Todd, M.D, Ph.D., Neurology, Medical School, University of Michigan (U-M), and member of the Executive Committee of the U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine
- Featured Scientist: Maria Castro, Ph.D., Professor, Neurosurgery and Cell & Developmental Biology, Medical School
- CRISPR in the Nobel spotlight – U-M researchers aim to improve CRISPR tools and use them to target cancerWorld CRISPR Day 2020, Tuesday, Oct. 20
- Featured Scientist: Patricia Wittkopp, Ph.D., Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Sally L. Allen Collegiate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, College of LSA
- Did you miss it? RNA Translated, our annual magazine is out!
- RNA Translated, our annual magazine and brief report is out!
- Featured Scientist: Sami Barmada, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Neurology, Medical School
- Our members’ promotions: four Associate Professors and one Professor!<
- Featured Scientist: Peter Freddolino, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Chemistry, Medical School and Member of our Executive Committee
- From the Center’s co-directors, introducing Fall 2020
- “Direct kinetic fingerprinting and digital counting of single protein molecules,” Tanmay Chatterjee, Achim Knappik, Erin Sandford, Muneesh Tewari, Sung Won Choi, William B. Strong, Evan P. Thrush, Kenneth J. Oh, Ning Liu, Nils G. Walter, and Alexander Johnson-Buck, PNAS, August 31, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008312117
- “Stressed cellular proteins break social distancing rules,” a Molecular Cell publication
- Featured scientist: Amanda Garner, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy and Member of our Executive Committee
- S. Moon and N. Walter receive a “Collaborative Pairs Pilot Project” Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
- Featured scientist: Sara Aton, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, College of LSA
- Running Grant Sprints
- Featured scientist: Sethu Pitchiaya, Ph.D., Pathology and Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, Medical School
- News: This fall, join our RNA Student & Postdoc Council!
- Featured scientist: Joshi J. Alumkal, M.D., Professor, Associate Division Chief for Basic Research, Hematology-Oncology Division; Section Head, Genitourinary Medical Oncology Section, Internal Medicine, Medical School
- News: RNA Skill Share
- Featured scientist: Alan Boyle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, and Human Genetics, Medical School
- Featured scientist: Analisa DiFeo, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Pathology and Ob/Gyn, Medical School
- RNA Innovation Seminar with Kate Fitzgerald, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Featured scientist: Dan Peltier, M.D, Ph.D., Clinical Lecturer, Pediatric/Oncology
- Dr. Analisa DiFeo’s publication in Nature Communications: “miR-181a, a microRNA that regulates ovarian cancer cells”
- Featured Scientist: Dr. Vivian Cheung
- Sarah Keane, Ph.D., Biophysics and Dept of Chemistry, College of LSA, is named 2020 PEW Scholar.
Read her featured profile.
- Featured scientist: Peter Todd, M.D., Ph.D., Neurology, Medical School
- Featured scientist: Charles L. Brooks, Ph.D., Biophysics and Chemistry, College of LSA
- Featured scientist: Carlos Andres Aguilar, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Maria G. Castro, Ph.D., and Deepak Nagrath, Ph.D., both members of our Center for RNA Biomedicine, are the 2020 Forbes Scholars
New section: Our member’s publication
- Two U-M Center for RNA Biomedicine members (Stephanie Moon, Ph.D., and Peter Freddolino, Ph.D, presented at the RNA Collaborative Seminar Series, May 6, 2020
- U-M researchers advance COVID19 antibody test production.
- Two RNA Biomedicine experts, Janet Smith, Ph.D. and Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., are elected to the National Academy of Sciences
- Making patients resilient to COVID-19: Lessons to be learned from kidney single cell analysis
- Transposable elements play an important role in genetic expression and evolution – Publication in Nature Communications
- COVID-19 Funding opportunities
- Remdesivir Works against Coronaviruses in the Lab
- Moderna Charts Fast Track of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine to Clinical Trials
- Thank you from MI DHHS
- How can U-M RNA labs help with Coronavirus pandemic?
- Seminars and Symposium