Affiliations

Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Member, Cell & Developmental Biology GPB Home Area, Gene Regulation GPB Home Area

The Zamudio laboratory is interested in how RNA and RNA-binding proteins establish the gene expression programs that determine cellular identity. Using computational and molecular approaches, they aim to map RNA-mediated interactions and define their roles in normal human development and disease. Mechanistic insight into functional RNAs has illuminated multiple regulatory layers needed for normal cellular function and will continue to offer new pathways to target for the treatment of human diseases.

Jesse Zamudio received his bachelor's degree from UCLA in Chemistry & Biochemistry. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics working in the laboratory of Dr. David Campbell and Dr. Nancy Sturm. For his thesis work, he characterized the first eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) ribose cap methyltransferases. Although present in both the unique mRNA cap structure of human pathogenic Kinetoplastid protozoa and human mRNA, the proteins responsible for each had not been discovered. Based on evolutionary sequence conservation to known viral proteins, they were able to characterize a conserved eukaryotic protein family responsible for these modifications and determine their role in mRNA biogenesis and protein translation in kinetoplastids. These studies have aided the investigation of the human cap ribose methyltransferases implicated in early development.

Jesse pursued his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Phil Sharp at the MIT Cancer Center. His research focused on quantitative approaches to characterize Regulatory RNAs in embryonic and adult stem cells. He aimed to confidently assay regulation by the mammalian RNA interference (RNAi) pathway and in doing so discovered new classes of mammalian small RNAs and principles determining regulatory activity. Current research in the lab is focused on characterizing functional RNAs in the control of cell state transitions during development and cancer progression.

He joined the MCDB faculty in January of 2016.

Error in include template "/web/fdb5/www/gpb/institution/publications": can't read "allow_redirect_p": no such variable