We are excited to see the tremendous efforts of Dr. Ryuta Asada published. The most significant piece of work to come from my group to date, he demonstrates compositional heterogeneity of single mRNPs and plasticity across different growth conditions, defines the major co-occupants of nuclear mRNPs, and shows a function for Yra1 in nuclear mRNP packaging. Data that provides a quantitative framework for gene- and condition-dependent RBP occupancy and stoichiometry in individual nuclear mRNPs.
October means cooler days in Davis, Halloween, and the T32 retreat. Once again Fallen Leaf Lake was an amazing place to spend a few days and hear about the fantastic science going on at UC Davis. Andrew gave a great talk on an RNA-directed proximity labeling methodology he is developing in yeast, while Theresa gave a poster on a live-cell imaging assay that can track co-transcriptional mRNP assembly. Congratulations to Theresa for also taking home a poster presentation prize. Among all of that there may have also been some fun had… it was a real re”TREAT”.
We had a great time at the recent RNA Society meeting in Boulder. There we were able to see a lot of great science, visit with colleagues, start new collaborations, and enjoy a bit of nature. Both Theresa and Ryuta presented posters at the meeting, which were both very busy during the >2.5 hours they presented. Congrats to Ryuta for being awarded a poster prize!
Congratulations to Kalyn for presenting her first research poster! She enjoyed it so much, Kalyn may even join the lab to continue her project in the summer.
2020 was a challenging year, so it is great to start 2021 right, with a publication. Congratulations to Rima for publishing her work on meiotic splicing regulation by Npl3 in Nucleic Acids Research!
More good news! Our collaborative work with the Oeffinger Lab detailing how alterations in non-coding RNA processing can alter mRNA biology and nuclear homeostasis was accepted in Nucleic Acids Research. Congratulations and thanks to Biplab, Taylor, Arvind and Rachel in the lab for all their work on this.
Members of the Montpetit lab (left to right: Arvind, Ben, Rachel, Ryuta, Rima, and Collin – a BMCDB rotation student) spent the weekend at Fallen Leaf Lake in the Sierra mountains immersed in science and nature. Ryuta and Rima both presented posters on their research, while Arvind gave a talk detailing his efforts to map Dbp5 binding sites on RNA substrates across the yeast transcriptome. A success by all measures!
Congrats to Azra, Carlas, and Carina for having their work selected for a special online collection of articles related to mRNA Processing in Health and Disease by JCB Board member Jens Lykke-Andersen. The complete collection of articles can be found here.
Although the lab is spread across North America (Davis, Edmonton, and Montreal), we still want to celebrate the publication of Bip’s paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell. We will be sure to have a celebratory drink on his behalf!
Azra and Ben attended the ASCB’s annual meeting last week. Despite all the pictures we just know they spent most of their time indoors listening to some fantastic scientific talks! Azra discovered that presenting a poster and giving a talk in the same day is exhausting and means you spend the entire day talking! We’re not sure she will ever sign up to do that again but she managed it very well at ASCB. The next big challenge for Azra will be her candidacy exam, but after answering so many questions at ASCB she should be well prepared.
Congratulations to Judit and Ben on having a paper accepted to the Journal of Molecular Biology!
Pi release limits the intrinsic and RNA-stimulated ATPase cycles of DEAD-box protein 5 (Dbp5). Emily V. Wong, Wenxiang Cao, Judit Vörös, Monique Merchant, Yorgo Modis, David D. Hackney, Ben Montpetit, Enrique M. De La Cruz. Journal of Molecular Biology 2015. Accepted.
The Cell Biology Students Association hosted their annual Research Days on October 1st and 2nd. Dr. Heidi McBride (McGill University) was the invited keynote speaker this year and she was a big hit with everyone. Her talk was informative and she was very easy to chat with during the student lunch. Students also had the opportunity to participate in a Careers in Science Panel Discussion with panel members from the University, government and industry.
Summer is here and so are all the conferences. In the last few weeks there have been three different conferences lab members have participated in. The first meeting, the Canada Gairdner Symposium, occurred here at the University of Alberta and included speakers from around the world. Sadly Nobel Prize laureate Gunter Blobel was unable to attend due to illness. All three lab members, Judit, Azra and Biplab, presented poster at this symposium.
We are very happy to announce that Azra Lari is one of three students selected to give an oral presentation at the annual Cell Biology Students Association Research Day on October 6, 2014. Azra and Biplab will both be presenting poster at this event.
Biplab and Azra both worked so hard generating data they emptied almost every tip box. This resulted in an afternoon of filling tip boxes and the resulting Tower of Tips!
