How do protein making factories prevent cardiovascular disease?

Ribosomes are fascinating protein-making factories. Ribosomes and the entourage of associated factors are responsible for translating the genetic information encoded within mRNA into amino acid sequences joined together to make proteins. Surprisingly, components of the ribosomal machinery have been recently discovered to have additional roles in eukaryotic cells, including regulation of endothelial cell health. Work from our group has identified a strong genetic link between a ribosomal factor and cardiovascular disease but we do not understand how this works. How do ribosomes regulate endothelial cell health and protection from disease? What is the connection between faulty ribosomes and cardiovascular disease? These are some of the fundamental questions that this project will tackle. Our ultimate goal is to identify novel players in cardiovascular disease and design new therapies that target these pathways.

The student will have the opportunity to be exposed to a wide range of techniques based on the student’s individual interests. The student will be supervised on a daily basis by a postdoctoral fellow and will be trained in cell culture, siRNA/CRISPR techniques, protein gels and western blotting, ribosomal and polysome profiling, subcellular fractionation, molecular cloning, confocal microscopy, protein structure analysis, and bioinformatics.