Investigating functional conservation of Specialized ribosomes in eukaryotes

Ribosomes are the ancient cellular machines that perform protein synthesis. Although long considered uniform in both composition and function, recent findings have shown ribosomes to be far more heterogeneous than originally thought. Heterogeneity can give rise to specialized ribosomes and provide a novel means by which gene expression can be regulated, through the selective expression of a subset of mRNAs. You will investigate ribosome specialization in yeast and human pluripotent stem cells using a combination of state-of-the art mass spec, transcriptomic and functional approaches. The work underlying this project will help to understand an exciting and fundamental mechanism regulating gene expression.