2022 News
October 4, 2022 - UMass Chan Medical School News - Leader of coloring book initiative for the ScienceLIVE program at UMass Chan recognized for advocacy work. UMass Chan's outreach program for Worcester area middle school students, ScienceLIVE (Learning with Interactive Virtual Education), is one of six nominees on the shortlist for Nature’s Inspiring Women in Science 2022 Science Outreach Award. Learn about the honor Angela Messmer-Blust, PhD, has received.
October 3, 2022 - New publication from the Aronin & Khvorova Labs - Chemical engineering of therapeutic siRNAs for allele-specific gene silencing in Huntington’s disease models. Conroy, F., Miller, R., Alterman, J.F. et al.Nat Commun13, 5802 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33061-x
October 3, 2022 - News from the Sontheimer lab - MD/PhD student Tomás Rodríguez restarted @UMassChan’s Latino Medical Student Association chapter in 2020. He established the optional Medical Spanish elective in collaboration with students from all three schools. Tomás also received the 2021 National Hispanic Health Professionals Scholarship for his commitment to improve Latino Health.
October 3, 2022 - News from the RTI - While attending the annual Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) meeting in Arizona, Dr. Dan O'Reilly from the Khvorova Lab received the OTS Patient Advocacy award and Dr. Angela Messmer-Blust, Senior Scientific Advisor & Associate Professor, was recognized with the OTS Science Outreach award.
October 3, 2022 - New publication from the Khvorova Lab - Chemical engineering of therapeutic siRNAs for allele-specific gene silencing in Huntington’s disease models. Conroy, F., Miller, R., Alterman, J.F. et al. . Nat Commun 13, 5802 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33061-x
September 19, 2022 - New publication from the Zamore Lab - Structural basis of microRNA biogenesis by Dicer-1 and its partner protein Loqs-PB. Jouravleva K, Golovenko D, Demo G, Dutcher RC, Hall TMT, Zamore PD, Korostelev AA. Mol Cell. 2022 Sep 19:S1097-2765(22)00853-X. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2022.09.002. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36182693.
September 7, 2022 - New publication from the Sontheimer Lab - Efficient Homology-Directed Repair with Circular Single-Stranded DNA Donors. Iyer S, Mir A, Vega-Badillo J, Roscoe BP, Ibraheim R, Zhu LJ, Lee J, Liu P, Luk K, Mintzer E, Guo D, Soares de Brito J, Emerson CP Jr, Zamore PD, Sontheimer EJ, Wolfe SA. CRISPR J. 2022 Sep 7. doi: 10.1089/crispr.2022.0058. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36070530.
September 6, 2022 - New publication from the Mello Lab - A family of C. elegans VASA homologs control Argonaute pathway specificity and promote transgenerational silencing. Dai S, Tang X, Li L, Ishidate T, Ozturk AR, Chen H, Dude AL, Yan YH, Dong MQ, Shen EZ, Mello CC. Cell Rep. 2022 Sep 6;40(10):111265. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111265. PMID: 36070689
August 26, 2022 - New publication from the Watts Lab - Intratracheally administered LNA gapmer antisense oligonucleotides induce robust gene silencing in mouse lung fibroblasts. Shin M, Chan IL, Cao Y, Gruntman AM, Lee J, Sousa J, Rodríguez TC, Echeverria D, Devi G, Debacker AJ, Moazami MP, Krishnamurthy PM, Rembetsy-Brown JM, Kelly K, Yukselen O, Donnard E, Parsons TJ, Khvorova A, Sontheimer EJ, Maehr R, Garber M, Watts JK. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Aug 26;50(15):8418-8430. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac630. PMID: 35920332; PMCID: PMC9410908.
August 6, 2022 - New publication from the Watts Lab - Harnessing nucleic acid technologies for human health on earth and in space. Samantha L. Sarli, Jonathan K. Watts, Life Sciences in Space Research, 2022, ISSN 2214-5524, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lssr.2022.08.006.
July 30, 2022 - New publication from the Khvoroa Lab - Engineered ionizable lipid siRNA conjugates enhance endosomal escape but induce toxicity in vivo. Biscans A, Ly S, McHugh N, Cooper DA, Khvorova A. J Control Release. 2022 Jul 30:S0168-3659(22)00476-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.07.041. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35917865.
July 18, 2022 - New publication from the Khvorova Lab - Chemical optimization of siRNA for safe and efficient silencing of placental sFLT1.Davis SM, Hariharan VN, Lo A, Turanov AA, Echeverria D, Sousa J, McHugh N, Biscans A, Alterman JF, Karumanchi SA, Moore MJ, Khvorova A. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2022 Jun 22;29:135-149. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2022.06.009. PMID: 35847173; PMCID: PMC9263991.
July 18, 2022 - New editorial from the Pai Lab - Editorial: Alternative Polyadenylation in Development and Disease. Pai AA, Li YI, Provero P. Front Genet. 2022 Jul 1;13:936960. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.936960. PMID: 35846141; PMCID: PMC9286759.
July 11, 2022 - New publication from the Watts, Xue, and Sontheimer Labs - Editing In Vivo with a Single Adeno-Associated Virus Vector. Zhang H, Bamidele N, Liu P, Ojelabi O, Gao XD, Rodriguez T, Cheng H, Kelly K, Watts JK, Xie J, Gao G, Wolfe SA, Xue W, Sontheimer EJ. Adenine Base GEN Biotechnol. 2022 Jun 1;1(3):285-299. doi: 10.1089/genbio.2022.0015. Epub 2022 Jun 14. PMID: 35811581; PMCID: PMC9258002.
July 7, 2022 - New publication from the Khvorova Lab - PK-modifying anchors significantly alter clearance kinetics, tissue distribution, and efficacy of therapeutics siRNAs. Godinho BMDC, Knox EG, Hildebrand S, Gilbert JW, Echeverria D, Kennedy Z, Haraszti RA, Ferguson CM, Coles AH, Biscans A, Caiazzi J, Alterman JF, Hassler MR, Khvorova A. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2022 Jun 13;29:116-132. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2022.06.005. PMID: 35795486; PMCID: PMC9240963.
May 3, 2022 - Communicating science: Andrei Korostelev using structural biology to tackle antibiotic resistance
May 2, 2022 - New publication from the Zamore Lab - Principles and pitfalls of high-throughput analysis of microRNA-binding thermodynamics and kinetics by RNA Bind-n-Seq. Jouravleva K, Vega-Badillo J, Zamore PD. Cell Rep Methods. 2022 Mar 18;2(3):100185. doi: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100185. eCollection 2022 Mar 28. PMID: 35475222
April 21, 2022 - New publication from the Watts Lab - Tetrazine-Ligated CRISPR sgRNAs for Efficient Genome Editing. Chen Z, Devi G, Arif A, Zamore PD, Sontheimer EJ, Watts JK. ACS Chem Biol. 2022 Apr 21. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00116. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35446558 35475222
February 17, 2022 - New publication from the Xue Lab - Imaging net retrograde axonal transport in vivo: a physiological biomarker. Ann Neurol.Lee PJ, Kennedy Z, Wang Y, Lu Y, Cefaliello C, Uyan Ö, Song CQ, da Cruz Godinho BM, Xu Z, Rusckowski M, Xue W, Brown RH Jr. . 2022 Feb 17. doi: 10.1002/ana.26329. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35178738.
January 22, 2022 - New publication from the Pai Lab - Widespread occurrence of hybrid internal-terminal exons in human transcriptomes. Fiszbein A, McGurk M, Calvo-Roitberg E, Kim G, Burge CB, Pai AA.Sci Adv. 2022 Jan 21;8(3):eabk1752. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk1752. Epub 2022 Jan 19.PMID: 35044812
January 21, 2022 - New publication from the Sontheimer & Xue Labs - A split prime editor with untethered reverse transcriptase and circular RNA template. Bin Liu, Xiaolong Dong, Haoyang Cheng, Chunwei Zheng, Zexiang Chen, Tomás C. Rodríguez, Shun-Qing Liang, Wen Xue & Erik J. Sontheimer Nat Biotechnol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01255-9
January 11, 2022 - New publication from the Xue Lab - Genome-wide detection of CRISPR editing in vivo using GUIDE-tag. Shun-Qing Liang, Pengpeng Liu, Jordan L. Smith, Esther Mintzer, Stacy Maitland, Xiaolong Dong, Qiyuan Yang, Jonathan Lee, Cole M. Haynes, Lihua Julie Zhu, Jonathan K. Watts, Erik J. Sontheimer, Scot A. Wolfe & Wen Xue. Nat Commun13, 437 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28135-9.
January 5, 2022 - New publication from the Xue Lab - AAV5 delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 supports effective genome editing in mouse lung airway. Shun-Qing Liang, Christopher J. Walkey, Alexa E. Martinez, Qin Su, Mary E. Dickinson, Dan Wang, William R. Lagor, Jason D. Heaney, Guangping Gao, Wen Xue. Molecular Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, 2022, Pages 238-243, ISSN 1525-0016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.10.023.
January 5, 2022 - New publication from the Xue Lab. A flexible split prime editor using truncated reverse transcriptase improves dual AAV delivery in mouse liver.. Zheng C, Liang SQ, Liu B, Liu P, Kwan SY, Wolfe SA, Xue W. Mol Ther. 2022 Jan 5:S1525-0016(22)00005-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2022.01.005. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34998953.