Event Date
Speaker: Kathleen Collins
Speaker Title: Professor
Speaker Institution: Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
Speaker Bio: Since launching in 1995, research in the Collins lab at UC Berkeley has spanned from RNA biology to chromosome maintenance. For the past decade, Collins lab research has focused on exploiting retrotransposon reverse transcriptase proteins to pioneer a new approach for site-specific, safe-harbor transgene insertion to the human genome. We termed our method PRINT: Precise RNA-mediated Insertion of Transgenes (Nature Biotechnology, 2024). PRINT supplements the genome with autonomously expressed transgenes of choice by co-delivery of two RNAs: an mRNA encoding an non-long-terminal-repeat R2 retrotransposon protein with coordinated nicking and reverse transcriptase activities, and a template RNA encoding the transgene flanked by modules that bind the protein and form a few base-pairs with the target site. We seek to understand the mechanisms that influence PRINT, including the DNA repair pathways that complete new gene insertion. We also seek to understand native non-long-terminal-repeat retrotransposon biology.
Title: RNA-templated synthesis of genome insertions by non-LTR retrotransposon proteins
About the Series
The IGG Graduate Group Seminar Series brings leading researchers to UC Davis to present innovative work spanning genetics, genomics, and systems-level biology. The series fosters interdisciplinary dialogue around emerging approaches and discoveries shaping modern biological research.