Congratulations to our former postdoc Shovamayee Maharana who moved back to India to the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and now has her own lab!
Shova was a joint postdoc with Simon Alberti (former MPI-CBG group leader, now TU-Dresden professor) working on RNA and its implications on phase separation of prion like proteins. In her landmark Science paper Shova showed that RNA is critically important for solubility of prion like proteins in the nucleus. Lowering of nuclear RNA levels led to cytotoxic protein aggregates. In addition to this work Shova contributed to a series of other papers from the Hyman and Alberti lab.
In her own lab, Shova will now work on the question how specific and non-specific interactions of RNA drive the phase separation of RNA binding proteins into condensates. She uses mammalian cell culture and in vitro reconstituted systems to work on these specific aims:
- What are the roles of non-coding RNA in nuclear stress granule formation?
- What are the factors controlling cellular RNA metabolism and how do they affect condensate formation?
- What is the effect of RNA modifications on condensate formation?
Good luck to you Shova, and hope to hear a lot from your work in the coming years!
