Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology
Medical Faculty, University of Bonn University Hospital of Bonn Venusberg - Campus 1 53127 Bonn
Transcript-specific translation by the ribosome
Regulation of gene expression is essential to specify cell types and tissues. Our lab focuses on how such regulation is executed through the ribosome, particularly in the innate immune response.
The ribosome has recently emerged as an active regulator of gene expression. Our lab studies a fundamentally new mode of gene regulation by which ribosomal RNA (rRNA) regions exposed on the outer shell of the ribosome called rRNA expansion segments directly bind to selective transcripts to control mRNA- and species-specific translation. Ribosomes have thereby evolved the ability to discriminate which proteins are made through selective translation via rRNA. We combine innovative RNA biochemistry and RNA-based technology development with model systems ranging from yeast to macrophages. Through this, our lab aims to decipher how rRNA-directed specialized translation shapes gene expression to understand the role of rRNA expansion segments in innate immune responses where customized translation may underlie dynamic cellular specification
