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The RNA Transcript, October 25, 2021

We are pleased to announce the publication of our annual magazine and report, RNA Translated. This year's issue focuses on RNA therapeutics research. It is, in a way, the continuation of RNA Translated, 2020, The Year of the RNA Virus.

18 U-M scientists and scholars present their research on three RNA therapeutics areas: mRNA vaccines, ASOs, and CRISPR. The second half of the magazine highlights the main activities of the Center for the July 2020–June 2021 period.

Special thanks to all our contributors!
RNA Translated is available on line (flipbook) and in an interactive downloadable pdf format.
Dr. Lori Isom, chair of the Medical School’s Department of Pharmacology, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors for a clinician and scientist.
Read more in The Record.

Congratulations Dr. Isom!
Monday, October 25, 12:30–5:30 pm, Rackham Graduate School | University of Michigan, Drug Discovery

"First Annual Drug Discovery Symposium"
The Symposium aims to highlight success stories from the drug discovery community at the University of Michigan. The symposium will give faculty and trainees a chance to share best practices and network with others involved with drug discovery research on campus.

With Anna Schwendeman, Ph.D., Roger Cone, Ph.D., Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D., Lola Eniola-Adefeso, Ph.D.
Tuesday, October 26, 12:00–1:00 pm ET, in-person: 3330 MS I, ZOOM | University of Michigan, Biological Chemistry

"Know Thy Enemy: Making CRISPR Memories"
Michael Terns, Ph.D., University of Georgia

Hosts: Yan Zhang and Nils Walter
Wednesday, November 3, 4:00 pm ET | RNA Collaborative Seminar Series hosted by UCSC Center for Molecular Biology of RNA

Monday, November 8, 1:00 pm ET, BSRB - ABC Seminar room | University of Michigan Chromatin Club

Faculty Talk: Kristin Koutmou, Ph.D., Chemistry, College of LSA

Trainee Talk: Arvind Ramakrishnan, Cadigan lab, MCDB, College of LSA
Monday, November 8, 4:00 pm ET | University of Michigan Center for RNA Biomedicine

"Harnessing diverse compact CRISPR-Cas3 for long-range genome engineering"
Zhonggang Hou, Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School

"Microscopic Examination of Spatial Transcriptome through Seq-Scope"
Jun Hee Lee, Ph.D., Molecular & Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School
January 3–6, 2022, St. Petersburg, Florida | The RNA Society

6th Conference on Regulating with RNA in Bacteria & Archaea — CRISPR systems, small noncoding RNAs, riboswitches, transcriptomics, host-pathogen interactions, and more.

The deadline for early registration and submission of oral abstracts is October 31, 2021; poster abstracts will be accepted through November 15, 2021.

 
For press releases and blog articles about your upcoming top journal publications, please
contact Elisabeth Paymal.

Our members' publications are available through Altmetric. Five queries are currently available: "RNA," "microRNA," "Transcriptome," "Translation," and "Molecule." Please make sure to have at least one of these key words in your title or abstract. Below is a recent highlight.
Stability and conformation of the dimeric HIV-1 genomic RNA 5′UTR, Robert J. Blakemore, Cleo Burnett, Canessa Swanson, Siarhei Kharytonchyk, Alice Telesnitsky, James B. Munro, Biophysical Journal, Open Access Published:September 13, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2021.09.017

Significance:
During virion assembly, HIV-1 packages dimerized copies of its single-stranded RNA genome. This process may be regulated by the conformation of the genomic 5′UTR. Conformational changes in the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) have also been implicated during additional steps of the virus life cycle, including reverse transcription and virion maturation. Thus far, two conformations of the 5′UTR dimer have been described, which differ in the extent of intermolecular basepairing, although whether genomic RNA from different HIV-1 strains that have distinct 5′UTR sequences form similar dimer conformations has not been fully determined. Here, we demonstrate that 5′UTRs from distinct HIV-1 strains form similar conformations with divergent intrinsic stabilities. These results support a unified model of genome dimerization for different HIV-1 strains.
Epigenetically defined therapeutic targeting in H3.3G34R/V high-grade gliomas
S. R. Sweha, Chan Chung, Siva Kumar Natarajan, Pooja Panwalkar, Matthew Pun, Amer Ghali, Jill Bayliss, Drew Pratt, Anand Shankar, ..., Sriram Venneti, +21 authors, Science Translational Medicine, 13 Oct 2021, Vol 13, Issue 61, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abf7860

Abstract:
... Our studies identify the LIF/STAT3 pathway as a key epigenetically driven and druggable vulnerability in H3.3G34R/V gliomas. This finding could inform development of targeted, combination therapies for these lethal brain tumors.
Career Opportunity
Research Computer Scientist at the University of Michigan, Medical School, Urology
The laboratory of Dr. Sethu Pitchiaya seeks to hire a research computer scientist to work at the intersection of biological image analysis and bioinformatics. Our work is highly interdisciplinary and lies at the intersection of RNA biology, pathology and technology development. We develop and deploy spatial-resolved, single-cell and single-molecule imaging to interrogate gene regulatory mechanisms at high-throughput and high-resolution, especially in the context of cellular stress response and cancer. 


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