Fields of Research

• Drug Discovery and Precision Medicine
• Gene Architecture and Action
• Molecular Basis of Disease

Research Summary

The Shechner lab strives to understand how RNAs regulate mammalian cellular architecture, and to develop novel technologies for probing noncoding RNA functions throughout health and disease.

Research Statement

Beyond coding for proteins, RNA molecules drive an extraordinary array of cellular processes throughout all kingdoms of life. In humans, emerging evidence suggest that many RNAs may play essential and dynamic architectural roles within the cell. This includes RNAs that help to organize higher-order chromatin domains, or which scaffold membraneless organelles that control gene-expression, metabolic, and stress-response programs. Dysregulation of these RNA-mediated structures has been causally implicated in a broad range of human pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, retroviral infections like HIV/AIDS, and nearly all cancers. This implies that RNA-mediated interactions may represent a vast, untapped resource of potential therapeutic targets. Yet, most of these potentially targetable interactions remain uncharacterized, due to the limitations of existing technologies. The Shechner Lab strives to overcome this technological gap, by developing novel methods for interrogating RNAs’ influence on cellular architecture, and for probing the molecular interactions that underlie these architectural functions in both health and disease.

Awards and Honors

CCSG/Safeway Early Career Award in Cancer Research 2019–2020

HHMI/Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship 2011–2014