Guillaume Chanfreau
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Biochemistry
Genes are copied into RNA messages before those messages are used to build proteins. How long an RNA lasts, and whether faulty copies are destroyed, strongly shapes which genes are active in a cell.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
RNA processing
RNA degradation
ribonucleases
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2029
What they work on
- Determine how nuclear ribonucleases, including the RNA exosome, RNase III and the Rex exonucleases, regulate expression of chromatin remodeling factors such as bromodomain proteins when cells are placed under stress.
- Identify the role of Rexo4, a cancer-linked ribonuclease, in the processing of mammalian ribosomal RNA, the RNA core of the cell's protein-making machines.
- Test how several conserved splicing factors shape global gene expression in living cells, using RNA sequencing after inactivating each factor.
- Measure the global effect of splicing inactivation on the proteome, including whether the hybrid mRNA-snoRNA species (hmsnoRNAs) that accumulate in the cytoplasm are translated into protein.
More about the research
Enzymes that cut and degrade RNA, called ribonucleases, carry out this trimming and quality control. Splicing, the step that removes non-coding segments from an RNA message, is another major control point. Errors in these processes are linked to inherited disorders and to cancer. Two connected lines of work are pursued here: what nuclear ribonucleases do, and what happens to gene expression when splicing fails.
Why it matters
Faulty RNA processing underlies genetic disease: mutations in RNA exosome subunits cause Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia, a disorder of brain development. Other proteins examined here, including Rexo4 and bromodomain chromatin factors, are associated with cancer. Clarifying how these molecules govern gene expression could illuminate the molecular mechanisms behind diseases of RNA metabolism.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Fadia Ibrahim
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biochemistry
Measure how cellular conditions that stall ribosomes change the mRNA fragments produced by ribothrypsis, using transcriptome-wide sequencing methods that capture both ends of each mRNA.
Jeffery Coller
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biochemistry
Determine how the mRNA degradation complex senses ribosome speed as it changes with codon optimality.
Shu-Bing Qian
Cornell University, NY·Biochemistry
Identify and map ribosome footprints, short mRNA fragments shielded by ribosomes, that bind chromatin, using the lab's Ezra-seq sequencing method to reveal how translation communicates with transcription in the nucleus.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
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