Category: RNA2018

Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!

Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.

Background

Neurodegenerative diseases and genetic conditions lack effective treatments. Patients with disorders like Huntington’s disease (HD) and congenital amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) thus have unmet medical needs. To begin to get to the heart of these disorders, researchers like Dr. Anastasia Khvorova, a professor at UMass Medical School, are looking for strategies to target RNA in order to develop treatments. Continue reading “Size Matters: Using oligonucleotide siRNAs for Targeted Therapeutics” →

Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!

Live blogger: Whit Froehlich. Editor: Sarah Kearns.

Roy Parker, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Colorado and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who studies the regulation of translation and degradation of messenger RNA (mRNA) using yeast as a model organism. Degradation of mRNA is accomplished in coordination with the removal of the “poly-A tail” at its end, which precedes degradation from either end of the molecule. His other work includes investigation of the processes around mRNA decapping and storage in P-bodies. He is speaking today about RNA granules, and generally about aggregated RNA structures, as well as some of their roles in disease. Continue reading “Stressed out about RNA Granules; Roy Parker” →

Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!

Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.

Suppose you have some extremely important information in the form of a blueprint and it’s your job to protect it. It’s not just a blueprint for a top-secret location – it’s the blueprint to life; it specifies how every cell in the body should function.  Continue reading “Through Space and Time: Monitoring RNA Translation; Jonathan Weissman” →

Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!

Live blogger: Sarah Kearns. Editor: Whit Froehlich.

Most of the work done in your cells is done by complex molecules called proteins. Made up of long chains of amino acids, they are required for the structure, function, and regulation of your body’s tissues and organs. The design of these proteins comes from DNA, the genetic code of life. But the pathway from double helix DNA to protein, as it turns out, is a complicated one.  Continue reading “Genetics of Colorectal Cancer; Eric Fearon” →

Coming to you LIVE from the 3rd annual RNA Symposium: Advancing RNA Bioscience into Medicine. Follow us on Twitter or the tag #umichrna!

Live blogger: Whit Froehlich. Editor: Sarah Kearns.

Melissa Moore, Ph.D., is currently the Chief Science Officer at Moderna Therapeutics, having previously been on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts as Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology and Eleanor Eustis Farrington Chair in Cancer Research with a concurrent appointment as Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her work ranges widely in RNA, currently focusing on pre-mRNA processing for medicinal applications.  Continue reading “Modern(a) developments in mRNA theraputics; Melissa Moore” →