Lisa Appel did her Master’s in molecular biology at the University of Vienna, followed by a PhD in Dea Slade’s lab. Currently, she works as a post-doctoral researcher in the Slade lab, where she focuses on the protein domain SPOC (Spen paralogue and orthologue C-terminal domain) and its role in transcription regulation. In her study, published in Nature Communications, Lisa discovered that the SPOC domain – which is found across all eukaryotes – is universally able to read phosphorylation marks in the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. However, subfamilies of SPOC proteins recognize different patterns, which leads to the assumption that SPOC domains play an essential role in regulating transcription and RNA metabolism. Lisa says: “Our study lays the foundations for a better understanding of the deregulation of SPOC-containing proteins in developmental diseases and cancer.”
Johannes Benedum studied nutritional sciences and molecular biology at the University of Vienna. He joined Dea Slade’s lab in 2019 for his Master’s project and decided to stay for his PhD, working on the dynamic regulation of transcription by phosphorylation, with a focus on the SPOC domain-containing proteins DIDO and PHF3. Johannes’ findings, also published in Nature Communications, “show that PHF3 and DIDO3 can link the transcription machinery to regulators involved in both transcription and co-transcriptional processes via their SPOC domains. Both proteins form macromolecular complexes with RNA polymerase II to fine-tune gene expression.” In addition, Johannes’ study shows that the regulation of gene expression through SPOC proteins is particularly relevant in neuronal development.
The Researchers of the Month (Medical University of Vienna)
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