Molecular biologist David P. Bartel, best known for his work on microRNAs, will deliver an Apex Lecture on Jan. 15, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. in 1220 MRB III. A reception will precede the lecture at 1:00 p.m. in the MRB III first-floor atrium. The title of his talk is “Regulation of mRNA Translation and Decay.” This School of Medicine Basic Sciences Apex Lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry.
Bartel is a member of the Whitehead Institute, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Bartel lab is interested in the molecular pathways that regulate eukaryotic gene expression by affecting the stability or translation of mRNAs, and as such study microRNAs and other small RNAs that specify the destruction and/or translational repression of mRNAs. They also study mRNA untranslated regions and poly(A) tails and how these regions recruit and mediate regulatory phenomena.
Bartel has helped to define microRNAs, their regulatory targets, and their molecular and regulatory consequences in animals and plants. In addition, his lab has made key contributions to the understanding of other RNA-silencing pathways in animals, plants, and fungi, the functions of mRNA poly(A) tails and 3′-untranslated regions, and the catalytic potential of RNA.
Bartel is committed to the education and training of young scientists. At MIT, he teaches an undergraduate course in evolution with Robert Berwick and a graduate course in nucleic acids with Ankur Jain. In addition, 35 Ph.D. students and 33 postdoctoral fellows have completed training in the Bartel lab, most of whom are thriving either as postdocs or as independent investigators.
Bartel is the co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and has won numerous awards, including the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize in 2002, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology in 2005, and the Institut de France Louis-D. Prize in 2005. He became an HHMI Investigator in 2005 and was selected as a National Academy of Sciences Member in 2011.
Lecture abstract
We investigate the molecular pathways that regulate gene expression by affecting the stability or translation of mRNAs. One interest is microRNAs, which are small regulatory RNAs that typically direct the destruction of their target transcripts. We have recently been studying the conformational changes required for microRNA-directed slicing of mRNAs. Another interest is mRNA poly(A) tails, which stabilize mRNAs in some contexts and increase translation efficiency in others. We have recently found the conditions required for tail length to influence translational efficiency and have defined major determinants of tail-length modulation (both lengthening and shortening) in the cytoplasm.
About the Apex Lecture Series
There are major inflection points in biomedical discovery that create new fields, new ideas, and new opportunities to impact human health. To engage with global researchers contributing to these inflection points, the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences launched the Apex Lecture Series in 2023. This school-wide seminar series brings scientists who are influencing the trajectory of their fields to engage with our scientific community on campus.