Areas of Interest
The process of translating messenger RNA (mRNA) into proteins must be tightly regulated. Our lab is focused on how the process is initiated.
Using cryo-electron microscopy in combination with biochemical and genetic approaches, we study the role of a family of enzymes called DEAD-box (DDX) RNA helicases in the initiation of mRNA translation in humans, and how this initiation is regulated in health and disease, including:
- The role of RNA helicases in local translation initiation in neurons during the early stage of human brain development
- The structure and role of helicases in translation of mRNAs containing repeat expansions that lead to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia
- How translation is dysregulated in cancers
Published Articles or Reviews
Recent Publications
Structure of a human 48S translational initiation complex.
Brito Querido J, Sokabe M, Kraatz S, Gordiyenko Y, Skehel JM, Fraser CS, Ramakrishnan V.
Science. 2020; 369: 1220–27.
Structural Differences in Translation Initiation between Pathogenic Trypanosomatids and Their Mammalian Hosts.
Bochler A, Querido JB, Prilepskaja T, Soufari H, Simonetti A, Del Cistia ML, Kuhn L, Ribeiro AR, Valášek LS, Hashem Y.
Cell Rep. 2020; 33: 108534.
The cryo-EM Structure of a Novel 40S Kinetoplastid-Specific Ribosomal Protein.
Brito Querido J, Mancera-Martínez E, Vicens Q, Bochler A, Chicher J, Simonetti A, Hashem Y.
Structure. 2017; 25: 1785–94.
ABCE1: A special factor that orchestrates translation at the crossroad between recycling and initiation.
Mancera-Martínez E, Brito Querido J, Valasek LS, Simonetti A, Hashem Y.
RNA Biol. 2017; 14: 1279–85.
eIF3 Peripheral Subunits Rearrangement after mRNA Binding and Start-Codon Recognition.
Simonetti A, Brito Querido J, Myasnikov AG, Mancera-Martinez E, Renaud A, Kuhn L, Hashem Y.
Mol Cell. 2016; 63: 206–17.
For a list of publications from PubMed, click HERE