Craig Martin
University of Massachusetts, MA·Biochemistry
Messenger RNA (mRNA), the molecule that carries a gene's instructions to the cell's protein-making machinery, is often chemically modified at particular positions. These modifications can change over time and help control how genes are used.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Chemistry
Biophysics
- Topics
mRNA
RNA modifications
epitranscriptomics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Develop an enzyme-based fluidics system using co-immobilized flow transcription to incorporate multiple, different modified bases at chosen positions in RNA too long for chemical synthesis.
- Use the system to place fluorescent probes for FRET, a light-based distance measurement, at specific RNA sites for studies of RNA structure and dynamics.
- Produce RNA with position-specific stable isotopes for NMR spectroscopy, and with modified bases that enable studies of translation and alternative splicing.
More about the research
To study them, researchers need RNA with a chosen modification at an exact spot. Chemical synthesis can make such RNA, but only at very short lengths. Methods that work for longer, gene-length RNA are therefore needed.
Why it matters
Being able to make long RNAs with modifications at exact positions could expand understanding of how base modifications act in specific genes across biology. That knowledge could ultimately inform the design of future RNA therapeutics, such as mRNA-based medicines.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Esteban Orellana Vinueza
Dartmouth College, NH·Biochemistry
Determine how chemical modifications alter the structure, dynamics and folding or misfolding of tRNA isodecoders, tRNAs that share an anticodon but differ elsewhere, using spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations.
Eric T. Kool
Stanford University, CA·Chemistry
Develop new acylating reagents that attach labels, biotin or crosslinkers at specific sites on native RNAs through the 2'-OH group, the hydroxyl group found on every RNA nucleotide.
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.
The school
University of Massachusetts: 28 labs on PI Pages, $282M a year on research, 337 research doctorates a year.
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