Molecular mechanisms connecting signal transduction and RNA processing: Structural studies of the STAR family of protein

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Post-transcriptional gene regulation is a major regulatory event in cells that allow for protein diversity out of a limited number of genes. These regulations are modulated by extracellular signals through cell signalling. Very little is known about the molecular mechanisms that govern these regulations and modulations. I intend to study at a molecular level a family of proteins, called STAR, which connects cell signalling and post-transcriptional gene regulation. For that I will use a combination of biochemical and biophysical methods, especially NMR spectroscopy. The first main aspect of the project will be to characterize structurally how STAR proteins specifically recognize their target RNAs. The second aspect will involve protein-protein interactions and will be to characterize how cell signalling affects the functions of these proteins in post-transcriptional gene regulation.Since these proteins play a role in tumour progression and in the life cycle of retroviruses, like HIV-1, these structural studies will provide the molecular basis for developing specific drugs optimized for cancer and retroviral therapies.