SFB1309 Lecture in collaboration with CNATM and CAS: Prof. Dr. Cynthia Burrows

2024-04-10    17:15

Prof. Dr. Cynthia Burrows is Thatcher Presidential Chair and Distinguished Professor
Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Title: "From Viruses to Vaccines: Nanopore Studies on Chemically Modified RNA"

Using nanopore technology we have been able to apply direct RNA sequencing for chemical modifications by inspecting the data for base-calling errors, ionic current and dwell-time differences to map up to 17 modifications in 35 locations of the E. coli ribosome. For pseudouridine, these methods can be enhanced by modification-specific chemistry based on bisulfite. Application of these methods to viral RNA led us to identify conserved sites of pseudouridinylation of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA, and we could further sequence RNA synthesized by IVT in which m1Ψ replaces some of the U nucleotides with a view toward more effective mRNA vaccines. These results are a major step toward the Holy Grail of single-molecule sequencing for simultaneous identification and quantification of all nucleotide chemical modifications in RNA.

LMU, Konferenzraum ICEM (Gebäude L), Würmtalstr. 201, 81377 München