RNA synthetic biology

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In this project, we will develop efficient methods to predict the effects of mutations in our DNA. This is important, due to the ongoing national investment in research to read out the mutations people carry in their DNA. We will only be able to use that information if we know what individual mutations are doing and how they may affect health and disease.Our methods rely on cell culture models. In such models, many thousands of cells are grown together in a flask, and we engineer every cell to contain a different mutation in a selected gene. We then ask which mutations cause the cells to die, and which parts of the cell are affected by each mutation.We can then use this information to predict which mutations cause disease. We have teamed up with biomedical researchers in Edinburgh to study mutations that cause diabetes, eye malformations, and metabolic disorders.