Katerina Cermakova
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Biochemistry
Before a gene's message can be used to make a protein, the RNA copy must be shipped out of the nucleus. This export step affects how stable nearly every RNA is, where it goes and how much protein it makes.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
RNA export
mRNA nuclear export
intrinsically disordered regions
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Determine how chromatin and transcription state influence RNA export of highly transcribed genes, by rapidly manipulating the IDR-domain interaction in living cells and measuring nascent RNA and genomic outcomes.
- Define the structural basis by which intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs, flexible protein segments) connect the TREX RNA export complex to chromatin, using structural biology and chemical biology tools.
- Examine how IDR interactions drive coordinated assembly of the RNA export machinery and its selective gathering into subnuclear foci, using live-cell microscopy.
More about the research
When export goes wrong, it is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegeneration and cancer. Export is closely tied to how actively a gene is being copied, but it is unclear how the state of chromatin (DNA packaged with proteins) recruits and organizes the export machinery. A major obstacle is that export proteins are rich in intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), floppy stretches without a fixed shape that standard structural methods struggle to capture.
Why it matters
Faulty RNA export is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegeneration and cancer, and some RNA-processing factors are promising drug targets. Explaining how disordered protein regions control RNA export may support emerging RNA-focused therapies by revealing new ways to control this step.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shahar Sukenik
Syracuse University, NY·Biophysics
Determine when the structural preferences of disordered regions in transcription factors affect their function, by linking ensemble structure to transcriptional activity in live cells.
Beat Vogeli
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Biophysics
Determine how the dynein light intermediate chain (LIC), a flexible disordered region, works with cargo-specific adaptor proteins and phosphorylation to let a single cytoplasmic dynein carry many different cargoes, using NMR and other biophysical methods.
Thomas Martinez
University of California-Irvine, CA·Biochemistry
Select curated sets of disordered microproteins whose short linear motifs (SLiMs) match those in proteins for signaling, RNA metabolism or cell organization, to predict likely functions.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.