RNAi: Ancient mechanism new medicines.

Distinguished Professor and Nobel laureate Craig C. Mello will be presenting at the combined JCSMR Special School Seminar and the 2^nd 2024 ACT RNA Club meeting, co-organised by the Shine-Dalgarno Centre for RNA Innovation (SDCRI).

The lecture will take place as a part of the 75 anniversary celebrations series of the John Curtin School of Medical Research in 2024. Lecture will include ample time for questions from the room and will be followed by an all-in discussion in the Finkel Theatre foyer with afternoon snacks. 

Biography

Distinguished Professor Craig C. Mello received his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University and his B.S. in Biochemistry from Brown University. He has a dream career in RNA Biology and was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (along with many other prizes) for the discovery of RNA interference. RNA interference is one of the most ubiquitous mechanisms of gene expression control by RNA, fundamental to all biology and also actively used in biotech industry and medicine.

He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator 2000-2024, is Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, Co-Director of the RNA Therapeutics Institute and a Distinguished Professor at UMass Chan Medical School. He is founder and advisor of many biotech initiatives, for example CRISPR Therapeutics.

His laboratory and science have been using one of the most classical models of higher eukaryote genetics, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, to study gene control during biologically-important processes such as embryogenesis. His collaborative work with Dr. Andrew Fire using this system led to the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi). RNAi also provides a therapeutic avenue to silence genes that contribute to disease. Distinguished Professor Craig C. Mello is continuing his research in the regulation and propagation of genetic information, investigating how proteins use short segments of genetic code (20-30 nucleotides of RNA) to recognise and regulate specific genes. His group pursues many projects in this area and his articles often appear in EMBO, Cell, and Nature, among the other most prominent journals.

Distinguished Professor Craig C. Mello’s visit is coordinated by the Shine-Dalgarno Centre for RNA Innovation (SDCRI) and co-organised by the SDCRI, College of Health and Medicine ANU and The ACT RNA Club.

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