mRNA Splicing: Fourty years from Discovery to Therapeutics

Program

Organizers: Mila Pollock, Phil Sharp & Joan Steitz

Co-chair: Robert Darnell The Rockefeller University
Co-chair: Iain Mattaj EMBL, Heidelberg Germany

Phillip A. Sharp: The journey to RNA splicing
Richard J. Roberts: The discovery of RNA splicing
Richard Gelinas: Splicing foretold—Abundant adenovirus 2 mRNAs were composed of sequences derived from more than one position on the genome
Louise T. Chow: The EM discovery of split genes and RNA splicing in adenovirus transcripts
Joan A. Steitz: RNA-RNA interactions in the spliceosome
Nathaniel Comfort: RNA worlds—Splicing, catalysis, and the origin of life
Michael Rosbash: Yeast Ribosomal Protein & Circadian Cycling of Splicing
Nikolaus Rajewsky: Splicing back
Rick Padgett: Spliceosomal factor mutations in human diseases

Co-chair: Timothy Nilsen Case Western Reserve University
Co-chair: Manuel Ares University of California, Santa Cruz

Jean D. Beggs: From gene cloning to splicing, transcription and chromatin
Magda Konarska: Spliceosome complexes—From early manifestations to future challenges
Reinhard Lührmann: An intriguing journey from the initial biochemical characterization of snurps to cryo-EM snapshots of the spliceosome
Xiang-Dong Fu: Splicing factors and regulators in biology—More than we could have imagined
Nouria Hernandez: The early days of splicing in vitro
Michael R. Green: Identification of alternative splicing factors through large-scale RNA interference screens

Co-chair: Walter Gilbert Harvard University

Melissa J. Moore: Spliceosome profiling allows for transcriptome-wide analysis of the functional intronome
Christopher B. Burge: RNA binding preferences of 78 proteins—Low diversity in primary motifs, but wide diversity of context effects
Brenton R. Graveley: The incredible world of pre-mRNA splicing
Douglas L. Black: Pre-mRNA binding proteins as positive and negative regulators of splicing pattern
Karla M. Neugebauer: Perfect timing—Splicing and transcription in living cells
Larry Zipursky: Alternative splicing of Dscam1 generates a vast number of isoforms essential for neural circuit assembly
Tom Maniatis: RNA transcription, splicing and stochastic promoter choice in the Protocadherin α gene cluster

Co-chair: Erik Sontheimer University of Massachusetts Medical School
Co-chair: Woan-Yuh Tarn Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Jonathan Staley: Proofreading and catalyzing pre-mRNA splicing
Alberto R. Kornblihtt: Transcriptional control of alternative splicing along time—Ideas change, experiments remain
Siddhartha Mukherjee: Splicing Factor Mutations in MDS
Soo-Chen Cheng: Studies of protein components and protein complexes of the yeast spliceosome
Yigong Shi: Mechanistic insights into pre-mRNA splicing by the spliceosome
Kiyoshi Nagai: CryoEM snapshots of the spliceosome provide insights into the mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing

Chair: Stu Orkin Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Kristen W. Lynch: Regulation of alternative splicing in T cell activation and viral infection
David L. Spector: Nuclear speckles, non-coding RNAs, and cancer—Full circle
James L. Manley: Concentration-dependent splicing regulation—A critical mechanism in normal and disease cells

Co-chair: Phillip A. Sharp Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Co-chair: Joan A. Steitz Yale University/HHMI

Co-chair: Ryszard Kole Sarepta Therapeutics
Co-chair: Charles Query Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Adrian R. Krainer: The path from basic studies of pre-mRNA splicing to the first treatment for a neurological disease
Gideon Dreyfuss: RNA-binding proteins and RNPs in splicing and mRNA regulation
Robert Darnell: Neuron-Specific Systems Regulating RNA-protein Interactions in the Brain
Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco: Human epistatic interaction controls IL7R splicing and increases multiple sclerosis risk
Ben Blencowe: Systematic exploration of the regulatory and functional landscapes of alternative splicing