The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Elena Conti, Ph.D., Honorary Professor, Ludwig Maximilian University; director and scientific member, department of structural cell biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Speaker bio(s)

All RNAs in eukaryotic cells are eventually degraded. The RNA exosome is a conserved macromolecular machine that degrades a wide variety of RNAs from their 3' end. Exosome-mediated RNA degradation leads to the complete elimination of nuclear and cytoplasmic transcripts in turnover and quality control pathways, and to the partial trimming of RNA precursors in processing pathways. How the exosome combines specificity and versatility to either eliminate or process RNAs is not well understood, but an important aspect lies in the association with cofactors that modulate the activity of the complex and target it to different transcripts in different cellular compartments.

 

Over the years, Dr. Conti’s laboratory has used biochemical and structural approaches to understand how the core complex of the yeast exosome channels RNA substrates for degradation and how it associates and functions with nuclear and cytoplasmic cofactors. Evidence that exosome cofactors interact with pre-ribosomes in the nucleus and with mature ribosomes in the cytoplasm paves the way for understanding how different exosome–ribosome assemblies underpin opposite outcomes of RNA degradation: a constructive function of the nuclear exosome in the maturation of the large ribosomal subunit and a destructive function of the cytoplasmic exosome in the destruction of ribosome-bound mRNAs.

 

Dr. Conti’s research is aimed at understanding how RNA export, surveillance, and turnover are carried out by the concerted action of macromolecular machines using a combination of structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysical approaches. In particular, her laboratory has studied the mechanisms of mRNA surveillance centered at the exon junction complex and of RNA degradation by the exosome complex.

 

Dr. Conti studied chemistry at the University of Pavia in Italy and received her Ph.D. in 1996 from the Faculty of Physical Sciences at Imperial College London. For her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Conti joined the laboratory of Dr. John Kuriyan at Rockefeller, where she worked on the mechanisms of nuclear protein import. In 1999, she established her own research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. In 2007, Dr. Conti became director and scientific member of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, where she heads the department of structural cell biology. In recognition of her work, Dr. Conti has been awarded several prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2008, the Hans Krebs Medal in 2011, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2014, and the Theodor Bücher Medal in 2016. She is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Germany National Academy of Sciences.

Open to

Public

Host

Titia de Lange, Ph.D.

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Justin Sloboda(opens in new window)

Phone

(212) 327-7785(opens in new window)

Sponsor

Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785(opens in new window)
Jsloboda@rockefeller.edu(opens in new window)