Fadia Ibrahim
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biochemistry
Cells constantly make and destroy messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the working copies of genes that ribosomes read to build proteins. How fast an mRNA is destroyed helps decide how much protein a cell makes, so RNA decay is central to healthy cell function.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
ribothrypsis
mRNA decay
co-translational decay
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Measure how cellular conditions that stall ribosomes change the mRNA fragments produced by ribothrypsis, using transcriptome-wide sequencing methods that capture both ends of each mRNA.
- Test whether ribothrypsis, the ribosome-linked cutting of mRNAs already seen in humans and yeast, is conserved in other eukaryotic organisms.
- Identify "ribothrypsin," the unknown endonuclease (an enzyme that cuts RNA from within) proposed to be recruited by ribosomes to cleave mRNAs during translation.
- Determine whether chemical modifications on RNA act as triggers that start ribothrypsis and so help regulate gene expression.
More about the research
The textbook view holds that mRNAs being read by ribosomes are protected from decay. In that view, decay starts by trimming the mRNA's tail (deadenylation), then removing its protective cap, then chewing the molecule from both ends.
Why it matters
Faulty control of gene activity underlies many human diseases. Understanding how ribothrypsis breaks down mRNAs could help explain how RNA decay goes wrong in these diseases. The grant states that this knowledge could pave the way to new RNA-based diagnostics. It could also deepen basic understanding of how ribosomes work and how RNA modifications act.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeffery Coller
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biochemistry
Determine how the mRNA degradation complex senses ribosome speed as it changes with codon optimality.
Pavla Brachova
Old Dominion University, VA·Biology
Determine how inosine, a chemical modification in the coding region of mRNA, affects translation in oocytes, including whether it causes amino acid substitutions, using proteomics and RNA-sequencing approaches.
Joel G Belasco
New York University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine the structural and phylogenetic diversity of 5′ caps on bacterial messenger RNA, chemical modifications only recently found outside eukaryotes, across bacterial species.
The school
Thomas Jefferson University: 12 labs on PI Pages, $271M a year on research, 33 research doctorates a year.
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