RESEARCH: RNA Decay

The decay of RNA transcripts has long been an underappreciated mode of regulating gene expression.  Steady state transcript abundance is governed equally by the synthesis and decay of mRNA transcripts.  While studies over recent decades have focused primarily on the importance of transcriptional control in altering gene expression, RNA decay has also been shown to be a precise and gene specific process.  I am interested in understanding the dynamics of the global decay program in mammalian systems as well as developing new, practical assays for measuring RNA stability under physiological relevant conditions.