Cologne Seminars on Ageing "Understanding RNA Binding Proteins through their dynamic interaction networks"

About Dr. Jovanovic's talk:

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) represent one of the most abundant and conserved groups of gene regulatory factors. However, unlike transcription factors, whose motifs and regulatory logic are relatively well characterized, RBPs remain fundamentally understudied. We do know that individual RNAs can be bound by dozens of RBPs, and that RBPs often function in combinatorial modules. But without systematic insight into these molecular interactions, the regulatory logic of post-transcriptional gene expression remains largely unresolved.

Our lab aims to uncover this regulatory logic by studying RBPs in their dynamic molecular context. We first showed, using large-scale protein protein interaction mapping, that most RBP interactions are strongly RNA-dependent and that RBP networks reorganize across stages of the mRNA life cycle. These findings revealed new biological roles for several RBPs, including unexpected stress-responsive functions for well-studied spliceosomal components. However, they also highlighted a broader conceptual challenge: the post-transcriptional layer is vastly more dynamic and combinatorial than we previously appreciated, and resolving its logic requires approaches that can measure interactions at scale and across time. In response, we developed new strategies for high-throughput mapping of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions that allow us to track how RBP networks change during cellular transitions. Applying these tools has uncovered principles of selective translational repression during stress and revealed how RBP modules assemble, dissolve, or switch partners as cells alter their gene expression programs.

Together, these studies establish a framework for understanding RBPs not as isolated factors, but as components of regulated, dynamic interaction networks. By integrating molecular interaction maps with biological perturbations and cell-state transitions, we are beginning to decode how RBPs collectively shape post-transcriptional gene expression and, ultimately, cellular identity.

This event is aimed at a specialist audience.