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Wellcome Trust Grant Award:
24 July 2008
Wellcome Trust Grant Award 24 July 2008 Dr Heidi Sutherland and Professor Wendy Bickmore have been awarded a grant from the Wellcome Trust to study the function of a human protein called Psip1.
This protein is thought to regulate the expression of human genes during development but it is also used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to invade our genome.
By studying howh Psip1 normally works, the investigators hope to provide insight into
a potential target for novel anti-viral therapies. Web links Wellcome Trust.
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Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship:
14 May 2008
Dr. Bret Heale has recently been awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to fund his work on the role of ADAR1 in modulating the RNA interference pathway. The ADAR family of proteins modify messenger RNA (mRNA), molecules that carry the genetic code from genes to ribosomes where it is translated into a protein. Modification of mRNA by ADARs can dramatically affect the properties of the encoded protein. It has now been shown that ADAR1 can also influence the RNA interference pathway.
The RNA interference pathway is composed of small regulatory RNAs called
miRNA and siRNA. They act by repressing the expression of specific mRNAs. The RNA
interference pathway play a pivotal role in many cellular pathways including
embryogenesis, development, aging and cancer. Thus, Dr. Heale proposes to dissect the
ADAR1 protein and determine which part is required to modulate RNA interference, how
common this modulation is, and what cellular partners are essential for ADAR1 to affect
RNA interference.