Genetic Architects: How Retrotransposons Craft Our Genomes
Molecular Biology Research Seminar
- January 13, 2025
- 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- Auditorium, Rockefeller Research Laboratories, MSKCC, 430 E. 67th St.
Event Details
- Type
- Other Tri-Institutional Events
- Speaker(s)
-
Akanksha Thawani, Ph.D., Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
- Speaker bio(s)
-
Dr. Thawani’s research focuses on understanding how mobile genetic elements shape our genomes and its defenses. Retrotransposons make up a family of mobile elements that copy-and-paste themselves and dominate the genomes of multicellular eukaryotes. Despite their abundance, the mechanisms that drive retrotransposon spread have remained a mystery due to challenges in purification and biochemical characterization. Dr. Thawani will present her efforts to unravel the molecular and structural basis of human LINE-1 retrotransposon spread, the gene responsible for an astonishing one-third of the human genome. Retrotransposons hold the key to developing programmable transgene insertion technologies that do not rely on donor DNA, offering a new and safer approach for gene therapy. Dr. Thawani will further present recent cryo-EM structures that allow us to understand how site-specific retrotransposons from vertebrate species mobilize and describe ongoing efforts to engineer vertebrate retrotransposons for transgene insertion technology.
- Open to
- Public
- Host
- John Petrini
- Reception
- Refreshments, 10:45 a.m.
- Phone
- (646) 888-3714
- Sponsor
-
Niesha Hunte
(646) 888-3713
Hunten@mskcc.org