Craig Mello
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Genetics
Every generation, an organism inherits genetic material that may be useful or may be harmful, such as mobile DNA elements that can disrupt genes. Cells therefore need a way to decide which sequences to express and which to shut off, and to pass that decision to their offspring.
- Fields
Genetics
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
RNA interference
RNAi
small RNAs
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Determine how germline cells distinguish 'licensed' genetic information that should be expressed from potentially dangerous 'unlicensed' information such as foreign or mobile sequences, using C. elegans small-RNA silencing pathways.
- Define how Argonaute proteins, which carry small-RNA guides, work with chromatin regulators to propagate gene-expression states from one generation to the next in the worm germline.
- Test whether peri-nuclear nuage domains marked by distinct RNA-binding proteins specialize into separate compartments that each handle a different RNA-silencing task.
- Examine whether nuage domains communicate with the nuclear loci that generate their small RNAs, which would allow roughly twenty thousand guide species per domain to silence adjacent heterochromatin.
More about the research
Much of this sorting is handled by small RNAs, short RNA molecules that act as guides, together with Argonaute proteins, which carry the guides and silence matching transcripts. This project asks how a cell tells permitted information from potentially dangerous information, and how that judgment is remembered across generations.
Why it matters
Deciding which genes to express and which to silence, and transmitting that decision to the next generation, is a conserved function shared well beyond worms. Mapping how small RNAs, Argonaute proteins, and chromatin cooperate in this task could clarify how comparable disturbances in RNA surveillance and heterochromatin contribute to human disorders.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alicia Rogers
University of Texas at Arlington, TX·Genetics·Early-career
Test whether feedback loops between RNA interference and chromatin modifying pathways keep the two in balance to protect germ cell identity during heat stress, using C. elegans germline genetics, physiological assays and multi-omics profiling.
Phillip Zamore
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA·Biochemistry
Identify the regulatory targets and gene-control mechanisms of pachytene piRNAs, small RNAs abundant in mouse sperm-precursor cells, using biochemistry and mouse genetics.
Wen Tang
Ohio State University, OH·Genetics
Determine how transcription of piRNA genes is regulated in C. elegans, using laboratory experiments combined with computational analysis.
The school
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School: 29 labs on PI Pages, $350M a year on research, 55 research doctorates a year.
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