Dr. Ivelitza Garcia

DEAD-Box Proteins:

RNA plays a crucial structural and catalytic role in a variety of important cellular processes. RNA biopolymers function as single-stranded chains and must fold into defined complex structures, much like proteins, to accomplish their diverse role. Achieving correct structural functionality is challenging for most RNAs due to the increase in folding complexity as a function of RNA length. Hence, protein cofactors are usually necessary to stabilize or modulate RNA folding. One type of RNA cofactor is the ubiquitous DEAD-box proteins. DEAD-box proteins are essential in all aspects of RNA metabolism, including pre-mRNA splicing, ribosome biogenesis, RNA interference, translation, mRNA transport, and RNA decay. These motor proteins modulate RNA-RNA, RNA-protein, and/or protein-protein interactions by utilizing 12 conserved motifs to harness the free energy and protein conformational changes associated with ATP hydrolysis. As part of the helicase superfamily 2 (SF2), DEAD-box proteins are formally putative RNA helicases. However, ATP-driven unwinding of RNA duplexes has only been illustrated for a few proteins. The main focus and motivation of the DEAD-Box research group has been to define the biochemical, structural, and regulatory characteristics of DEAD-Box proteins that play a critical role in cancer. Our group aims to define the key factors in tuning DEAD-Box protein activity to inhibit tumor growth.

Malate Dehydrogenase:

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