Assistant Professor, Center for RNA Molecular Biology (Faculty since 2001)

Education: Ph.D.: Department of Biology, Temple University, 1993

Postdoctrol Fellow: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University/University of Texas at Austin

Secondary Appointment in: Department of Biochemistry

Email: mgc3

Office Location: Wood Blgd. W106

Office Phone: 216-368-4757

Office FAX: 216-368-2010

Laboratory Location: W104

Laboratory Phone: 216-368-4563

Curriculum Vitae

Multi-component regulatory complexes are essential for controlling gene expression both before and after transcription. The formation and destruction of these complexes are the key steps in their function but how these processes are controlled are poorly understood. Our lab studies the assembly of an important group of regulatory complexes called ribonucleoproteins (RNPs). RNPS carry out widely divergent but essential functions in cells such as RNA processing, protein translation, and modulating chromosome structure. Some of the questions we ask are: how do the individual RNA and protein components of RNPs assemble with one another? Is assembly ordered? Is a level of control asserted by assembly proceeding in a cooperative manner such that one component binds only when another is present? How are assembly mistakes corrected and how is premature disassembly prevented? Why are RNA helicases (so-called “molecular motors”) almost universally required for the assembly and disassembly steps? How do helicases engage specific targets in vivo and how is their activity regulated? To address these questions we use budding yeast as a model system and apply genetic and biochemical approaches in the study of mitochondrial RNA splicing, translation and turnover.

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