Michael D Sheets
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biology
As an animal develops, its cells keep deciding what to become. Each of these cell-fate decisions depends on making the right proteins at the right time and place.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Biochemistry
- Topics
Bicaudal-C
Bicc1
RNA binding proteins
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Define how Bicaudal-C (Bicc1), an RNA-binding protein, selects its target mRNAs, testing whether multiple independent RNA-binding surfaces in its binding domain determine specificity, using RNA-protein biochemistry and genome-wide approaches.
- Define how Bicc1 represses translation of its target mRNAs into protein, mapping the protein regions responsible with translation-reporter assays.
- Determine the role of Bicc1's RNA-binding and translational repression activities in early cell-fate specification in Xenopus laevis frog embryos, using reverse genetics and embryology.
More about the research
In early vertebrate embryos, and in some adult cells such as neurons, much of this control happens after genes are copied into messenger RNA (mRNA). It happens through translational control, which decides whether an mRNA is actually made into protein. This project focuses on Bicaudal-C (Bicc1), an RNA-binding protein found in all vertebrates, including humans, that is essential for normal development. Scientists know Bicc1 is required, but how it works at the molecular level is largely unknown.
Why it matters
Bicc1 is essential for normal human development and for the function of adult organs. A molecular understanding of how it controls protein production could advance several biomedical research areas, including the study of complex diseases that affect a large share of the population. The work could reveal how defects in RNA-binding proteins lead to cell dysfunction and disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Angus M Macnicol
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, AR·Physiology
Determine how the RNA-binding protein Musashi selectively controls the translation of distinct target mRNAs in hormone-producing cells of the adult anterior pituitary.
Kristen Curran
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, WI·Biology
Define changes in gene expression and metabolism during dorsal mesoderm specification by comparing wild-type and bmal1 knockout Xenopus animal caps induced with activin, using RNA-seq plus measurements of oxygen consumption and NAD+/NADH ratios.
Richard Harland
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Biology
Determine how members of the Plekhg family of Rho GTP exchange factors, proteins that switch on cell-shape signals, control specific cell behaviors during gastrulation and neurulation in Xenopus embryos, using CRISPR knockdown.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
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