Maria Barna

Cracking the Code: Nucleic Acid Medicines Coming of Age The 2025 conference brings together leading academics and industry professionals to explore developments and challenges in the rapidly evolving field of nucleic acid medicines. By uniting researchers ...

Reminder to register for “Cracking the Code: Nucleic Acid Medicines Coming of Age” a Nature Conferences here in Boston, December 8th - 10th! natureconferences.streamgo.live/cracking-the...

Great line of up RNA speakers covering basic and translational nucleic acid biology+recent clinical successes

Mouse studies show that depriving neuroblastoma of polyamine causes a switch in protein synthesis to suppress tumor growth and promote cell differentiation @nature.com @childrensphila.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Kathrin is definitely larger than life! Best recruit ever!!

Rethinking RNA-binding proteins: Riboregulation challenges prevailing views RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are best known as effectors along the entire gene expression pathway and as constituents of RNA-protein machines such as t…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

90% of doing science is being open to new ideas.

Quality over quantity: Small RNA pauses translation elongation to lift protein activity Small noncoding RNAs typically regulate the translation initiation of target mRNAs and thereby protein production. In this issue of Molecular Cell, Thongdee et al. discovered a novel regulatory mechan...

Quality over quantity: Small RNA pauses translation elongation to lift protein activity: Molecular Cell www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Dr. Davide Ruggero of UCSF has received a rare renewal of his prestigious ACS Professorship, recognizing his groundbreaking cancer research on protein synthesis. ✨
@ruggerolab.bsky.social @ucsfcancer.bsky.social

urology.ucsf.edu/news/all/202...

I am happy to share the latest paper from the lab. We detail a tripartite cell-free translation system based on the separation of mRNAs, ribosomes and ribosome-depleted cytoplasmic lysate from human cells, allowing for flexible reconstitution of translation reaction.
#RNA #Ribosome

DNA binding and mitotic phosphorylation protect polyglutamine proteins from assembly formation DNA binding and phosphorylation protect FOXP2, a transcription factor with the longest polyQ track in the proteome, from aggregation during interphase and mitosis. Harnessing these native solubility-p...

I am incredibly proud to share that my work has officially been published in Cell! @cp-cell.bsky.social
This work was a product of years of dedication and countless hours of research in the labs of Joanna Wysocka and Dan Jarosz labs @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Small-molecule RNA therapeutics to target prostate cancer Kuzuoglu-Ozturk et al. showcase a therapeutic approach, “translatome therapy,” to combat lethal prostate cancer. Zotatifin, a clinical molecule, targets the RNA-helicase eIF4A. Zotatifin decreases the...

www.cell.com/cancer-cell/...

This started out as two separate projects, actually! 🤝 @mbarnalab.bsky.social has long been interested in comparing the composition of ribosomes in different parts of a cell, since localized mRNA translation is such an important aspect of gene regulation and protein homeostasis. (2/18)

A subcellular map of translational machinery composition and regulation at the single-molecule level Millions of ribosomes are packed within mammalian cells, yet we lack tools to visualize them in toto and characterize their subcellular composition. In this study, we present ribosome expansion micros...

Exciting new work from Barna Lab @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The crux of rigorously characterizing #IRES:
Kathrin Leppek @katleppek.bsky.social, Maria Barna and colleagues compile a toolbox of approaches to study internal #ribosome entry sites in mammalian cells and embryonic tissues
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Thanks so much Liam! I’m just setting up my BlueSky account right now.

Thanks so much Carolyn! I’m just setting up my BlueSky account right now.

A terrific collaboration between my lab and the lab of @KatLeppek.

Very proud of my graduate students ⁦@adelefrancisxu⁩ and Zijian Zhang & key members of our lab and collaborators ⁦⁦@GarryPNolan⁩ & Sharon Pitteri lfor the incredibly hard work to characterize subcellular ribosomes.

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Amazing and inspiring story on RNA binding proteins and translation specificity! Congrats to all!

x.com/RuggeroDavide/…

Very grateful for the support from @pewhealth for this project and @travisclantz who is an amazing graduate student who is taking the lead on getting this project off the ground!

x.com/pewhealth/stat…

So happy to be with amazing former postdocs at the RNA Canada 2024 meeting!! I’m so happy that @OZhulyn is dressed in pink!!

Great Highlight of the @RuggeroDavide and colleagues latest paper. A really unexpected and hidden role for eIF4E phosphorylation!

x.com/NatureRevCance…

9/9
This major effort was led by @D_Rothschild_, Theo Susanto, @xsui98, @spence_jeffrey_, @WangXiaoLab, and others and co-supervised by @jkpritch. Congratulations!

8/9
Cancer-specific rRNA variant expression is found in the TCGA dataset. By comparing cancer and control biopsies, we find cancer-specific rRNA variant expression in different cancer types, including an increase in lowly abundant rRNA variants.

7/9
We discover in the GTEx dataset tissue specific rRNA variant expression levels, including rRNA variant expression level differences between brain tissues (derived from the ectoderm lineage) and digestive system tissues (derived from the endoderm lineage).

6/9
By structure probing full-length 28S (DMS + RIBO-RT), we find that 28S subtypes have different structures. This includes a major change in structure at the expansion segment es27l near a GGC indel variant.

4/9
We in-situ sequence ribosomes with variations by developing a new technology, SWITCH-seq, and find that variants are co-expressed in individual cells in single-cell resolution.

3/9
By full-length rRNA sequencing, RIBO-RT, we discovered ~1500 variants and tens of high-abundant variants in translating ribosomes that we curate into an atlas of human rRNA variations. Highly expressed variants are localized in eukaryotic solvent-exposed expansion segments.

1/9
We show that Human ribosomes have different rRNA sequences, predominantly indels. These include abundant variants such as GGC indels, which form different structures. We visualize variants in single cells and associate them with development and cancer.

doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen…

Andrea is a super star!

x.com/AndreaZingaro9…

Thanks to co-authors Craig Kerr @RNA_bound , Yongjin Yoo, Yuxiang Chen, Juan Oses-Prieto, Lisa Fromm, Kotaro Fujii @KotaroFujii1 , Marius Wernig, and Alma Burlingame