Michelle Meyer
Boston College, MA·Microbiology & Immunology
Besides carrying genetic information, RNA also helps decide when genes are turned on or off. The ways RNA does this vary widely between organisms and are still evolving.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Ecology & Evolution
Biochemistry
- Topics
Streptococcus pneumoniae
pneumococcus
meningitis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2030
What they work on
- Map how changes in RNA sequence alter the function of cis-regulatory RNAs, including expression level, dynamic range, and sensitivity and specificity for ligands, in Streptococcus pneumoniae.
- Measure how changes in RNA regulator function affect S. pneumoniae fitness in culture and in mouse infection models, to separate limits set by RNA folding from limits set by cellular robustness.
- Probe the natural ways new RNA regulators arise and adapt in S. pneumoniae, including how the bacterium adapts to harmful regulatory changes.
- Identify mRNA targets of virulence-linked small RNAs using MAPS, a tag-and-capture sequencing method, combined with computational prediction, and validate 5 to 10 targets with reporter gene assays.
- Map the full S. pneumoniae small RNA–messenger RNA interaction network with RIL-seq, which crosslinks and joins paired RNAs, using the sRNA-processing enzyme Cbf1 to pull down the pairs.
More about the research
Little is known about how these RNA regulators arise, why organisms keep them, or what physical limits shape them. The lab studies these questions in Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes pneumonia, ear infections, and meningitis. One project asks how RNA regulators evolve, and the other maps the small RNAs that help the bacterium cause disease.
Why it matters
S. pneumoniae remains a major cause of pneumonia, ear infections, and meningitis because of rising antibiotic resistance and its ability to evade vaccines. Identifying the RNA regulators that control its virulence could reveal new targets for treatment. Understanding the rules of RNA regulator evolution could also inform drugs that target RNA and the design of synthetic RNA switches for biotechnology.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeffrey Weiser
New York University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how IL-1 and IL-17 signaling, two immune messenger pathways, recruit and activate the cells that take up and clear Streptococcus pneumoniae from the upper airway, using mice lacking the IL-1 or IL-17 receptor.
Michael Johnson
University of Arizona, AZ·Microbiology & Immunology
Measure how Streptococcus pneumoniae changes its gene activity and metabolite levels across a range of copper and zinc concentrations, using transcriptomics and metabolomics in a minimal, host-like growth medium.
Ronda Bibbs
Johnson C Smith University, NC·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether citrus plant extracts, which contain natural phytochemicals, slow the growth of different isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium behind pneumonia.
The school
Boston College: 11 labs on PI Pages, $96M a year on research, 161 research doctorates a year.
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