Elaine Youngman, PhD
Assistant Professor, Villanova University
Former RTI Lab: Postdoctoral Fellow, Mello Lab
Training Period: 2007 - 2012
Prior Academic Institution: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Awards: Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow
Precise regulation of gene expression is fundamental to the growth, development and homeostasis of organisms, and a large and complex network of protein factors act coordinately to ensure proper regulation. In addition, there is an emerging understanding that RNA molecules, long viewed primarily as passive carriers of information, also perform critical regulatory roles. My lab works to understand the biogenesis, functions, and evolution of a large class of regulatory small RNA molecules. Using approaches from genetics, molecular biology, and comparative genomics, we perform experiments in the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode with a large complement of small RNA genes and excellent experimental tools. Because small RNAs play important roles in gene expression and genome stability in an evolutionarily broad range of eukaryotes, we anticipate that our results will further understanding of these pathways in species ranging from yeast to humans.