the team
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| From Left to Right and Front to Back: Alexi Misciagna (Research Assistant), Anthony Erb (Graduate Student), Sara Young-Baird (Principal Investigator), Megan Rasmussen (Graduate Student), Chiamaka Onuorah (Summer Intern), Lauren Haacke (Graduate Student), and Ambar Rodriguez-Martinez (Former Research Associate). |
OUR APPROACH
We conduct mechanistic studies of human disease using a multidisciplinary set of powerful model systems including human patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), neurons, various immortalized mammalian cell lines, and yeast. The group also employs cutting-edge technologies integrating next generation sequencing with molecular, biochemical, and structure-function studies.
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OUR FINDINGS
The Young-Baird group recently found that the process of protein synthesis (i.e., translation of messenger RNA to protein) is dysregulated in a severe neurological disorder, termed MEHMO syndrome. This dysregulation causes inappropriate activation of the cellular stress response, ultimately resulting in impaired cell growth, defective neuronal differentiation, and an increase in programmed cell death.
Current work in the lab focuses on characterization of the molecular signatures of MEHMO syndrome and related protein synthesis disorders. We are also interrogating the function of specific translation factors that help to regulate the cellular stress response and are linked to multiple cancers as candidate oncogenes.