Publications by authors named "K M Ansel"
Promoting diversity in the scientific workforce is crucial for harnessing the potential of available talent and ensuring equitable access to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEM-M) careers. We have developed an innovative program called Postbaccalaureate Research Opportunity to Promote Equity in Learning (PROPEL) that provides scientific and career development training for postbaccalaureate scholars from historically excluded backgrounds in STEM-M fields with an interest in pursuing a PhD or MD/PhD degree. Our program is distinct from other postbaccalaureate programs in that scholars are hired by individual labs rather than funded centrally by the program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA structural switches are key regulators of gene expression in bacteria, but their characterization in Metazoa remains limited. Here, we present SwitchSeeker, a comprehensive computational and experimental approach for systematic identification of functional RNA structural switches. We applied SwitchSeeker to the human transcriptome and identified 245 putative RNA switches.
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- Proper activation of cytotoxic T cells is crucial for fighting off viruses and cancers, and involves interactions between the T cell receptor and the CD28 costimulatory receptor.
- Research identified a regulatory circuit involving the long non-coding RNA (Metastasis Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript 1) and the tumor-suppressor microRNA family miR-15/16, important for T cell activation and memory.
- Using CRISPR technology, the study demonstrated that disrupting the miR-15/16 binding site affected T cell activation and memory, highlighting the significant role of non-coding RNAs in the immune response.
Article Synopsis
- GCLiPP is a cutting-edge method used to map where RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) attach to RNA across the entire transcriptome with high precision.
- This technique provides more detailed insights compared to older methods, showing strong alignment with known binding sites identified through RBP-specific techniques like crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP).
- The study finds that both human and mouse T cells share significant GCLiPP signal peaks in similar regions of their 3' UTRs, revealing important RNA regulatory elements and their connections to immune-related genetic variations.
The miR-15/16 family targets a large network of genes in T cells to restrict their cell cycle, memory formation, and survival. Upon T cell activation, miR-15/16 are downregulated, allowing rapid expansion of differentiated effector T cells to mediate a sustained response. Here, we used conditional deletion of miR-15/16 in regulatory T cells (Tregs) to identify immune functions of the miR-15/16 family in T cells.
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