RPS Presentation, January 11, 2023– Lynne Maquat- Lessons Learned from Studying Inherited Diseases: From Mechanism to Therapeutics.
Dr. Lynne Maquat is the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics who holds concomitant appointments in Pediatrics and in Oncology, Founding Director of the Center for RNA Biology, and Founding Chair of Graduate Women in Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. After obtaining her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and undertaking post-doctoral work at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, she joined Roswell Park Cancer Institute before moving to the University of Rochester. Dr. Maquat’s research focuses on the molecular basis of human diseases, with particular interest in mechanisms of mRNA decay. To learn more about Dr. Maquat, her research and discoveries, link to her biography.
Prior to the recent COVID pandemic and the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, mRNA was not an acronym heard in many households. Nevertheless, scientists, including myself, have been studying the complicated series of steps that generate mRNA from our genetic material – our DNA – for decades. We have found that built into mRNA biogenesis are quality-control steps that help to ensure proper expression of our genes. This seminar will focus on what we have learned about gene expression from the perspective of mRNA in both health and disease and how RNA is already under development, if not already in use, as a tool or a target for disease therapeutics.