Epitranscriptomic sequencing

We study naturally occurring chemical modifications of individual RNA building blocks in cellular RNA molecules. The modifications add a layer of information to the four-letter alphabet of the RNA chain (hence "epitranscriptomics") and are important for fine-tuning expression and decoding of genetic information. New sequencing-based methods greatly enhance the study of modifications and our development of a method for the most abundant of modifications (ribose methylations) has revealed new aspects of the formation and function of ribosomes, the site of protein synthesis within the cell. We have discovered modification changes in physiological processes (T cell activation, muscle development), as well as disease states (cancer) and aim to study the functional consequences of such changes.