MicroRNA Pathways in Animal Development |
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| Launch in standalone player | |
| Air date: | Wednesday, January 07, 2009, 3:00:00 PM |
| Category: | Wednesday Afternoon Lectures |
| Description: | MicroRNAs are small regulatory RNA molecules, encoded in the genome, that base-pair with specific messenger RNAs and control their translation. MicroRNAs function in diverse physiological and developmental processes in animals, and in the nematode C. elegans, certain microRNAs figure prominently in the control of developmental timing by the heterochronic gene pathway. The genetic control of C. elegans developmental timing has provided a powerful model system for the genetic analysis of the function of certain microRNAs that are highly conserved between worms and mammals. C. elegans developmental timing mutants have moreover identified proteins that are part of the regulatory machinery associated with microRNAs and that could serve to mediate the regulation of microRNA activity by signaling pathways. Victor Ambros grew up in Vermont and graduated from MIT in 1975. He did his graduate research (1976-1979) with David Baltimore at MIT, studying poliovirus genome structure and replication. He began to study the genetic pathways controlling developmental timing in the nematode C. elegans as a postdoc in H. Robert Horvitz's lab at MIT, and continued those studies while on the faculty of Harvard (1984-1992), Dartmouth (1992-2007) and the University of Massachusetts, Medical School (2008-present). In 1993, Ambros and co-workers Rosalind Lee and Rhonda Feinbaum identified the first microRNA, the product of the heterochronic gene lin-4 in C. elegans. Currently, the chief research interest of the Ambros lab is understanding the roles of microRNA-mediated regulatory pathways in animal development and human disease. The NIH Director's Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series includes weekly scientific talks by some of the top researchers in the biomedical sciences worldwide. |
| Author: | Victor Ambros, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Download: | Download
Video How to download a Videocast |
| CIT File ID: | 14844 |
| CIT Live ID: | 7026 |
| Permanent link: | http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?14844 |
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Enhanced Audio Podcast | 1:09:38 |
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Enhanced Video Podcast | 1:09:38 | |