Aaron Goldstrohm, PhD
6-104 MCB
420 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States
Our goal is to discover the principles and mechanisms that control the expression of genetic information, with the benefit to society that this knowledge will enhance our understanding of the causes of disease and advance therapeutic strategies to correct deleterious gene expression.
Expertise
Gene regulation, Post-transcriptional control of messenger RNA stability, Translation and localization by RNA-binding proteins, mRNA untranslated regions, non-coding RNAs and ribonucleases. Genetic mechanisms of development, Cancer, Neurodegeneration, and obesity
Education
Professor, and Biophysics Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Faculty, PhD Program in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics
Research
Research Summary/Interests
We seek to understand how messenger RNAs are regulated. Regulation of translation, degradation and localization of mRNAs contributes to the enormous dynamic range of protein expression. Dysregulation can cause disease, developmental defects, and even death. Sequence specific RNA-binding factors, both protein and small RNAs, play a central role in mRNA regulation. Our research focuses on two important classes of regulatory factors: Pumilio proteins and specialized ribonucleases known as deadenylases.
Central questions of our research include:
- How do Pumilio proteins bind and regulate specific mRNAs?
- What transcripts do Pumilio proteins control, and how does this change between cell types (i.e. stem cells, neurons), during development, and in disease states (i.e. cancer and neurodegeneration).
- How are the regulatory activities of multiple RNA-binding proteins and ribonucleases coordinated and integrated to control the fate of mRNAs?