We study post-transcriptional gene regulation—why some cellular mRNAs are a thousand times more stable than others, and why some are translated better than others. These differences dramatically influence the amount of protein produced from each gene, which is critical for proper cellular function, as well as organismal development and survival. A major focus of our research is microRNAs, which are ~22-nt RNAs that pair to mRNAs to specify their repression. Another focus is mRNAs, with particular interest in their untranslated regions and tails, and how these regions recruit and mediate regulatory phenomena. In the course of our work, we develop new tools for high-throughput molecular measurements, which help to inform our computational analyses and in-depth mechanistic studies.
