Research Interests:

T Lymphocyte mRNA Stability

Research in my laboratory focuses on the role of mRNA decay in regulating T lymphocyte activation and function. Many genes that are important for cell growth and immune function are turned on at precise times and turned off at precise times. Dysregulated expression of many of these genes, including proto-oncogenes and cytokine genes, occurs in disease states such as cancer, autoimmunity, or immunodeficiency. One mechanism that cells use to turn off gene expression is specific degradation of mRNA within the cytoplasm. We have recently shown that the rate of decay of many transcripts encoding important regulatory proteins changes upon cellular activation, and these changes in mRNA decay can have dramatic effects on overall gene expression. Our goal is to understand the biochemical mechanisms that regulate mRNA decay and to understand the role of mRNA decay in regulating gene expression in disease states such as malignancy or virus infection.

Bohjanen Lab Site

Selected Recent Publications:

• Vlasova IA, McNabb J, Raghavan A, Reilly C, Williams DA, Bohjanen KA, Bohjanen PR. 2005. Coordinate stabilization of growth-regulatory transcripts in T cell malignancies. Genomics. 86(2):159-71.
  
• Ogilvie RL, Abelson M, Hau HH, Vlasova I, Blackshear PJ, Bohjanen PR. 2005. Tristetraprolin down-regulates IL-2 gene expression through AU-rich element-mediated mRNA decay. J Immunol. 174(2):953-61.
  
• Raghavan A, Dhalla M, Bakheet T, Ogilvie RL, Vlasova IA, Khabar KS, Williams BR, Bohjanen PR. 2004. Patterns of coordinate down-regulation of ARE-containing transcripts following immune cell activation. Genomics. 84(6):1002-13.
  
• Raghavan A, Robison RL, McNabb J, Miller CR, Williams DA, and Bohjanen PR. 2001. HuA and tristetraprolin are induced following T cell activation and display distinct but overlapping RNA-binding specificities. J. Biol. Chem. 276:47958-47965.
  

Last updated: October 24, 2006