Ankur Garg recently completed his PhD in the Heinemann Lab at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin.
He will give a talk titled, "Structural and functional analysis of ribonuclease ZC3H12C mediated regulation of immune responses".
All are welcome to attend - the talk will be of particular interest to those working with structural biology.
Abstract
During inflammation, immune responses are exerted by boosting up the cytokine levels by different immune cells. These cytokines are very strictly controlled at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels by various RNA binding proteins, because a cytokine storm may easily lead to autoimmune disorders. Recent studied have revealed that CCCH type Zn-finger containing Regnase/ZC3H12 family endoribonucleases are also involved in regulating various cytokines by targeting a specific-stem loop in their 3’ untranslated region (UTR).
During my PhD, I focused on the third member of the endoribonuclease family, the ZC3H12C/Regnase3, to provide structural and mechanistic insight into ZC3H12 mediated regulation of cytokine biogenesis. I determined multiple crystal structures of ZC3H12C RNase domain in apo and in RNA bound state, which together with different biochemical assays has uncovered crucial molecular details of the ZC3H12 family mediated immune homeostasis.
Further studies on these ribonucleases are required to endow us with a deeper understanding of immune response regulation and eventually enable the development of novel therapies against autoimmune diseases resulting from a cytokine imbalance.