Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Cells respond to stress conditions by forming large RNA-protein assemblies in the cytosol. These assemblies, called stress granules, are important for stress responses and are linked to tumor progression, neurodegenerative disorders such as ALS, and viral infections. How stress granules regulate cellular processes and are connected to disease is unclear. Recently, we discovered a methodology that can purify these assemblies which led to a comprehensive determination of the proteins and RNAs in stress granules. Using this informative dataset, the goal of my first aim is to describe the function of these assemblies. In my second aim, I will adapt the stress granule purification protocol to analyze granules in disease context such as ALS. The goal is to describe how these granules differ from stress granules and why they contribute to disease.