Sethuramasundaram Pitchiaya
University of Michigan, MI·Biochemistry
Cells constantly face stresses such as heat, toxic exposures and shifts in salt balance. In response, they shut down most RNA and protein production.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Biology
Biophysics
- Topics
cellular stress response
heat shock
biomolecular condensates
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2029
What they work on
- Identify the molecular drivers that make heat shock factors (HSFs), protein-folding guardian transcription factors, gather into nuclear condensates during proteotoxic stress, using advanced imaging and spatial-omics in cell models.
- Test whether stress-induced HSF condensates act as transcription hubs that strongly activate specific genes, revealing how spatial organization in the nucleus drives transcriptional control.
- Identify epigenetic drivers of transcriptional readthrough, where transcription fails to stop at gene ends, in cell models of osmotic and proteotoxic stress, using nascent RNA sequencing and epigenomics.
- Use single-molecule imaging to uncover the molecular drivers of stress-induced transcriptional readthrough at individual genomic loci in mammalian cells.
More about the research
At the same time, they switch on a select set of stress-response genes that decide whether the cell survives. Faulty stress responses are linked to aging, neurodegeneration and cancer, yet how cells control their genes during stress is largely unknown. This project examines two poorly understood features of the stress response.
Why it matters
Faulty stress responses are hallmarks of aging, neurodegenerative disease and cancer, and readthrough transcription also marks viral infections and kidney cancers. Clarifying how cells reorganize gene activity under stress could uncover new disease mechanisms. Over time, this could point toward diagnostics and treatments for illnesses driven by harmful stress exposures or broken stress-response programs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Danfeng Cai
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biochemistry
Determine how RNA binding through RNA-recognition motifs, together with coiled-coil domains, drives the NONO-TFE3 and SFPQ-TFE3 fusion oncoproteins to form condensates in the nucleus.
Jiahui Wu
University of Massachusetts, MA·Biochemistry
Develop an RNA tag with ultrahigh affinity to accurately identify the RNA-binding proteins that make up ribonucleoprotein complexes and trigger condensate formation.
Anna Sokac
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Biology
Test whether measurable features of transcription of five actin-regulator genes explain the even, synchronized timing of cellularization in Drosophila embryos, using live imaging of mRNAs down to single molecules.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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