Symposium Explores RNA and its Therapeutic Potential

Dr. Ackerman’s pioneering work using mouse genetics has identified novel genes, pathways, and networks involved in neurodevelopment and the maintenance of neuronal homeostasis and age-related death of neurons in the central nervous system.

Antonio Barrientos, Ph.D., is a professor of Neurology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Biochemistry, Neuroscience and Pharmacology graduate programs, with secondary appointment to Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Miami.

James M. Burke, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of molecular medicine at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. Burke probes changes to RNA during the antiviral response to pathogenic viruses.

Howard Y. Chang M.D., Ph.D., is director of the Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes and the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research at Stanford University. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; he is also professor of Dermatology and of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Patrick Cramer, Ph.D., is president-elect of Germany's Max Planck Society. He currently directs the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. Professor Cramer studies how the genome is transcribed and regulated in health and disease, employing structural biology, bioinformatics and functional genomics methods. Dr. Cramer is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and in 2020 he was named to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Matthew D. Disney, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. The Disney group develops rational approaches to design selective therapeutics from only genome sequence.

Kotaro Fujii, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and member of the Center for NeuroGenetics at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

An eminent microbiologist and geneticist, Rachel Green, Ph.D., is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. She explores the role of ribosomes in translating the genetic information found in all cells.

The overarching goal of Dr. Herschlag's research is to understand the fundamental behavior of RNA and proteins and, in turn, how these behaviors determine and impact biology and how it has evolved. His lab takes an interdisciplinary approach, spanning and integrating physics, chemistry and biology, and employing a wide range of techniques.

Katrin Karbstein, Ph.D., is professor of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. Her research focuses on mechanisms of ribosome assembly, quality control and the molecular basis for ribosome-associated diseases (ribosomopathies).

Jeannie T Lee is the Philip A. Sharp, Ph.D., Endowed Chair in Molecular Biology, Professor of Genetics (and Pathology) at Harvard Medical School, and vice chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Lee specializes in the study of epigenetic regulation by long noncoding RNAs and uses X-chromosome inactivation as a model system.

Roy Parker, Ph.D., is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; executive director of the BioFrontiers Institute; Cech-Leinwand Endowed Chair of Biochemistry and Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has a joint appointment with the departments of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Dr. Perera is director of the Center for RNA Biology at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, a senior scientist in the Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute and an associate professor of oncology in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has a secondary affiliation with the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research.

The overall focus of the Pipkin lab is to elucidate how chromatin structure and transcription controls the gene expression programs that establish and maintain the differentiated states of T cells.

Anna Marie Pyle, Ph.D., is the Yale Sterling Professor in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Chemistry, and she is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Dr. Ranum began her research career in human molecular genetics in 1989 at the University of Minnesota and is currently the founding director of the Center for NeuroGenetics and professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida.

Maurice S. Swanson, Ph.D., is professor and associate program director of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida.

Dr. Wahlestedt's laboratory pursues drug discovery and evaluation of combination therapies for various cancers. His team has been successful in identifying and bringing forward toward testing in humans several novel inhibitors of epigenetic and other drug targets. They are also conducting personalized ex vivo drug screening, with the cancer patient's own cells, to aid optimized treatment.

Eric Wang, Ph.D., received his doctorate from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, working with mentors Christopher Burge and David Housman. There, he trained in computational biology, as well as learned about diseases such as muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, and ALS.