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Bubulya lab awarded grant renewal

Congratulations to Department of Biological Science Associate Chair and Associate Professor Paula Bubulya, Ph.D., for her renewed NIH R15 grant award.  It is a 3-year award, titled: "Pre-mRNA processing factors maintain normal mitosis".

The most common form of cell division is called mitosis. It is used for growth and repair. During mitosis, a cell makes an exact copy of itself and splits into two new cells. The Bubulya lab recently discovered that two related mRNA processing proteins, Btf and TRAP150, have critical roles in cell cycle regulation. Since pre-mRNA processing and mRNA trafficking are understudied mechanisms for the regulation of cell cycle progression, the project has the potential to transform basic understanding of a fundamental eukaryotic cell function by determining if pre-mRNA processing factors have higher pre-mRNA substrate selectivity than is currently appreciated. Btf and TRAP150 are required for proper transcription/splicing regulation of their downstream target transcripts as part of a complex web of regulatory pathways required for maintaining genome integrity in human cells. Absence of Btf and TRAP150 causes misregulation of mRNA transcripts that code for cell cycle regulator proteins.  The project will test if mRNA transcript misregulation is directly responsible for disrupted organization of microtubules in the mitotic spindle, altered expression/localization of mitotic passenger proteins and chromosome misalignment observed during mitosis when cells don’t express proper levels of Btf and TRAP150.

Over the project period, the award will train 6-8 undergraduate students, 2 M.S. students and 1-2 Ph.D. students. Sophomore-level laboratory courses in cell biology and molecular genetics required of all WSU Biology majors (300 students per year) as well as specialized upper level undergraduate/graduate cell biology laboratory courses (8 students per year) will utilize antibodies, expression plasmids, minigene reporter cell lines, other reagents and experimental protocols developed in this project. The project plans to increase scientific literacy of more than 900 WSU students through exposure to meritorious research.