Event date:
Jan 8 2021 3:00 pm

RNA biology at the crossroads of evolution and disease

Speaker(s)
Prof. Dr. Jernej Ule
Venue
Zoom/Online
Abstract
The talk introduces the techniques that can be used to investigate the assembly and function of ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs). This includes iCLIP, a method combining multi-step biochemistry and computational biology to obtain a comprehensive map of protein-RNA interactions within cells. He also presents study of disease-causing mutations in TDP-43, a protein that is often mutated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The mutations tend to be located within intrinsically disordered regions, and presents the roles of these regions in fine-tuning the RNA binding properties and functions of the protein. Moreover, he shares his work on the roles that transposable elements play in RNP assembly. Also how these aspects of protein-RNA interactions contribute to regulatory variation, and thus play important roles in evolution and disease is also discussed.

Prof. Dr. Jernej Ule is our guest speaker for the Colloquium series zooming Molecular and Cellular Biology. Prof. Ule is a Group Leader at The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK and also holds a Professorship at the UCL Institute of Neurology in UK. He is investigating how protein-RNA complexes contribute to development and evolution, and when impaired, to conditions affecting the nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The seminar takes place via Zoom, and webcasted on the SBASSE Facebook page. 

Biography: Dr. Jernej Ule obtained his Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University in New York in 2004, where he co-developed a technique called ‘CLIP' to study protein-RNA interactions in cells. In 2006 he started his independent research programme to study RNA regulation in the brain, which led to development of iCLIP and hiCLIP, high-resolution methods to comprehensively map protein-RNA and RNA-RNA networks. His research team is located at the Francis Crick Institute, while Jernej also holds a Professorship at the UCL Institute of Neurology in UK. In 2020, he also initiated a small satellite team in Ljubljana. His team is investigating how protein-RNA complexes contribute to development and evolution, and when faulty, to conditions affecting the nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.