Reiter

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Research Interests

Thousands of functional RNA molecules exist in the human genome and do not encode protein sequences. We are just now beginning to understand how the diversity, structural complexity, and plasticity of regulatory RNAs help to drive evolution, development, and cellular differentiation. Indeed, it is the union of these non-coding RNAs with the capacity and efficiency of protein molecules that collectively serves to orchestrate and expand the complexity of an organism.

Our research group applies macromolecular crystallography and NMR techniques to understand how RNA and protein (ribonucleoprotein (RNP)) complexes regulate gene expression. Protein-RNA recognition events are central to biology and misregulation of these interactions leads to human disease and oncogenesis. A key to understanding RNP biological function is having knowledge of how they assemble and are structured three-dimensionally.