We study the role of RNA-binding proteins in regulating
gene expression of cellular and viral transcripts.
We focus on the RNA-recognition motif (RRM) protein
family members of which are involved in transcription,
splicing, translation and RNA stability. A major focus
of our work concerns the ELAV (a.k.a. Hu) proteins
that: 1)regulate the stability and translation of
messenger RNAs encoding oncoproteins (myc, fos, p53...)
and cytokines (tumor necrosis factor, interleukins
and interferons...) by binding to elements in their
3' untranslated regions; 2)function in differentiation,
apoptosis and cell cycle; 3)are involved in lung,
breast, ovarian and neuronal cancers; 4)participate
in operational gene expression networks. Based on
these and other related studies, we discovered posttranscriptional
operons.
