Research Description

Coupling between different post-transcriptional steps in gene expression increases efficiency and fidelity of each step, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Our studies are focused on the Exon Junction Complex (EJC), which acts as a molecular link between several post-transcriptional steps. EJC is an extremely conserved multi-protein complex deposited ~24 nucleotides upstream of mRNA exon-exon junctions during pre-mRNA splicing. It provides a stable platform for transient recruitment of several peripheral proteins that participate in pre-mRNA splicing and mRNA export, localization, translation and degradation. We investigate EJC functions in cultured mammalian cell lines using a collection of high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics-based strategies to capture transcriptome snap-shots (RNA-Seq), to reveal in vivo RNA:protein interactions (RIPiT, CLIP), and to study the cellular translation landscape (ribosome profiling). In addition, traditional yet ever-powerful biochemical and molecular approaches remain an important part of our toolkit.