Short biography
Ramin Shiekhattar obtained his PhD from University of Kansas. Following a postdoctoral training at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey under DR. Danny Reinberg's supervision, he joined the faculty at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. He rose through the ranks at the Wistar Institute to become a full professor. He is currently a senior Group Leader of the RNA Interference and Chromatin Regulation at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona.
Research Interests
Mechanism of Tumor suppressor functions, analysis of the role of chromatin-remodeling complexes in transcription and DNA repair, Mechanism of transcriptional silencers,Role of small RNA in the formation of higher order chromatin structure
Periodic Manuscript Reviews
Nature, Cell, Science, Molecular Cell, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Nature Genetics, Nature Cell Biology, J. Biol. Chem.
Membership in prof. societies
Am. Ass. for the Advancement of Science, Am. Ass. for Cancer Research Research interests
We are pursuing research in two major areas. The first is the molecular mechanism of cancer. We are working to address the mechanism by which tumor suppressors such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 exerted their biological effects. The second entails the delineation of the mechanisms by which the genome is silenced through chromatin modification and small regulatory RNA. The laboratory's goal is to understand the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in mammalian development and genetic disease. Histone modifying enzymes are a crucial component of the epigenetic control of gene activity through the regulation of chromatin state. We are also elucidating the pathways that direct transcriptional and posttranscriptional repression by small regulatory RNAs in human cells. Key words
Cancer, RNA, Epigenetics, Chromatin, Gene Regulation