Recent News
2024
September 2024
Warren Winick-Ng is awarded the Robert Home Research Fellowship.
June 2024
Efficient, specific, and combinatorial control of endogenous exon splicing with dCasRx-RBM25.
Li, J.D., Taipale, M., Blencowe, B.J. Molecular Cell. S1097-2765(24)00475-1. (2024).
In our most recent paper published in Molecular Cell, we performed a screen of human splicing factors fused to deactivated RfxCas13d (dCasRx) for guide RNA-programmable regulation of target exons. dCasRx-RBM25 was identified as an artificial splicing factor that can efficiently specifically and combinatorially activate or repress targeted endogenous exons, opening the door to new research and therapeutic applications. (read more).
May 2024
Jacob Fine is awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
April 2024
Jack Li is awarded the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship.
January 2024
Kenny Rebelo is awarded the School of Graduate Studies Conference Grant.
2023
December 2023
Systematic analysis of alternative exon-dependent interactome remodeling reveals multitasking functions of gene regulatory factors .
In our most recent paper with Anne-Claude Gingras and colleagues, affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry was used to explore how neural-differential alternative exons in transcription and chromatin regulators impact protein interactions. Our studies provides a resource of neural exon-regulated protein-protein interactions, and further uncovers roles for exons in Chtop and Sap30bp in controlling mRNA export through PRMT1-dependent methylation and mini-intron splicing, respectively (read more).
September 2023
Kenny Rebelo is awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
July 2023
Mackenzie Moore and Jacob Fine are awarded the Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award (read more).
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March 2023
Jacob Fine is awarded the Carelton E. Perrin Award and the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship.
2022
September 2022
Jack Li is awarded the Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award (read more).
September 2022
Steven Dupas wins Best Poster Prize for the 2022 Donnelly Retreat.
August 2022
Systematic exploration of dynamic splicing networks reveals conserved multistage regulators of neurogenesis.
In our most recent paper published in Molecular Cell, we employ a Neu-SPAR-seq screen to discover factors that regulate spatiotemporal splicing networks associated with neurogenesis. Integration of the screen data with molecular characterization and single-cell transcriptomics reveals multistage roles for Rbm38 and Puf60 isoforms in the regulation of splicing patterns and establishment of neuronal identity.
May 2022
Steven Dupas is awarded an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship Doctoral Award.
April 2022
Guillermo Parada is awarded the 2022 Charles H. Best Fellowship (read more).
March 2022
Systematic mapping of nuclear domain-associated transcripts reveals speckles and lamina as hubs of functionally distinct retained introns.
Our most recent paper published in Molecular Cell, reports the first large-scale survey of RNA transcripts that are associated with different nuclear bodies. This work suggests that these structures acts as hubs to coordinate gene regulation and cell division (read more).
2021
October 2021
Ulrich Braunschweig is awarded the Donnelly Centre Research Excellence Award (read more).
September 2021
Shagheyegh Farhangmehr is awarded the University of Toronto Open Scholarship.
August 2021
Steven Dupas is awarded the Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award.
2020
August 2020
Steven Dupas is awarded an NSERC Canada Doctoral Graduate Scholarship.
August 2020
Kenny Rebelo is awarded the Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award.
July 2020
Shaghayegh Farhangmehr is awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Thomas Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis accepts a prestigious Investigator position in the RNA Laboratory of the Center for Cancer Research at NIH, and will open his lab later this year.
Systematic multi-site genomic editing using a hybrid CRISPR-Cas platform reveals gene paralog interactions and essential alternative exons.
Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis, Aregger, Brown et al., Nature Biotech.38(5):638-6489. 2020.
Our most recent paper (involving a collaboration with Jason Moffat, Chad Myers and colleagues), describes a new functional genomics tool enabling the systematic mapping of genetic interactions and interrogation of the functions of sizable genomic segments in mammalian cells. Named ‘Cas Hybrid for Multiplexed Editing and screening Applications’ (CHyMErA), it outperforms genetic screens using Cas9 or Cas12a editing alone. Application of CHyMErA to the ablation of mammalian paralog gene pairs revealed extensive genetic interactions and uncovered phenotypes normally masked by functional redundancy. Application of CHyMErA in a chemogenetic interaction screen identified genes that impact cell growth in response to mTOR pathway inhibition. Moreover, by systematically targeting thousands of alternative splicing events, CHyMErA identified exons underlying human cell line fitness. CHyMErA thus represents an effective screening approach for genetic interaction mapping and the functional analysis of sizable genomic regions, such as alternative exons.
- Highlighted in: Burgess, D.J., (2020) CRISPR screens beyond Cas9. Nature Reviews Genetic. 21, 273; Donnelly Centre press release.
April 2020
Justin Lim is awarded an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Doctoral Graduate Scholarship.
Autism-misregulated eIF4G microexons control synaptic translation and higher-order cognitive functions.
Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis et al. Molecular Cell.77(6):1176-1192. 2020.
In this paper, which arose through a collaboration with Sabine Cordes and several additional groups in Toronto, we characterized vertebrate-conserved neuronal microexons in the translation initiation factor eIF4G1 and eIF4G3 paralogs, which are regulated by SRRM4 and neuronal activity, and misregulated in autistic brains. Genetic ablation of these proteins results in increased expression of numerous proteins that impact synaptic transmission and plasticity. Mice deficient of the Eif4g1 microexon display altered social behavior and memory deficits, accompanied by an aberrant form of protein synthesis-dependent synaptic plasticity. The eIF4G microexons primarily regulate neuronal translation by promoting ribosome stalling, through a mechanism associated with the increased coalescence of numerous neuronal granule components, including the Fragile X mental retardation protein, FMRP. Mechanistic similarities by which the eIF4G microexons and FMRP control translation of synaptic protein expression provide an intriguing link between idiopathic cases of autism, in which pronounced eIF4G1 microexon skipping is often detected, and Fragile X syndrome. This work further suggests a novel potential therapeutic strategy for neurological disorders.
- Highlighted in: Ustianeko, D. et al. (2020). Brain Translation: A Feather Tips the Scale. Mol. Cell 77:1155-1156; Donnelly Centre press release.
January 2020
Zheng Luo is awarded the CH Best Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Alternative splicing regulatory networks: Functions, mechanisms, and evolution.
Ule and Blencowe. Molecular Cell. 76(2):329-345. 2019.
Latest review article on alternative splicing written with Jernej Ule at the Crick Institute.
2019
Ben is elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (UK).
June 2019
Drice Challal is awarded an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship.
January 2019
Autism spectrum disorder: insights into convergent mechanisms from transcriptomics.
Our latest review featured on the cover of Nature Reviews in Genetics.
2018
September 2018
Efficient and accurate quantitative profiling of alternative splicing patterns of any complexity on a laptop.
Our latest paper describes a powerful new method for analyzing alternative splicing using RNA-Seq data.
August 2018
Thomas Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis is awarded the inaugural Donnelly Centre Research Excellence Award (read more).
April 2018
Rasim Barutcu is awarded a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.
January 2018
Eesha Sharma receives the Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Award (read more).
January 2018
Serge Gueroussov receives the Barbara Vivash Award in Molecular Genetics for the most outstanding PhD thesis defended in 2017 (read more).