Gift establishing a new RNA biology professorship will support faculty who carry forward his vision of collaboration across campus

Dr. Bill Marzluff (left) with longtime friend and collaborator Dr. Bob Duronio

Walk through the halls of the University of North Carolina’s Genome Sciences Building, and you quickly sense the presence of Bill Marzluff, PhD. For decades, he has moved easily between labs, offices and departments—connecting people, sharing ideas and bringing disciplines together. That instinct for collaboration has shaped not only his career, but the culture of research at Carolina. Now, through his gift establishing the RNA Biology Term Professorship, he is ensuring that same spirit of connection continues to drive discovery for years to come.

“I turned 81 recently,” Marzluff said with a smile. “I’m in phased retirement… but I’m still publishing.”

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Daniel McKay, PhD

Genes make up the blueprints and outline the process of building every living organism.

To ensure that the right genes are activated in the right cells, and in the right amounts at the right time, genes are constantly being regulated by small molecular machines made of proteins. When gene regulation fails, or specific genes are altered through mutation, the body is more predisposed to diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and autoimmune disorders.

Now, for the first time in animals, the IBGS-supported lab of Daniel McKay, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences and of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine, has identified a crucial focal point in the regulatory processes that govern cell identity.

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Elizabeth Brunk, PhD

UNC-Chapel Hill researchers have launched a database called CytoCellDB to address a significant gap in cancer research, particularly focusing on extrachromosomal DNA, they explain in their paper, “CytoCellDB: A Resource Database for Classification and Analysis of Extrachromosomal DNA in Cancer,” published in Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) Cancer.

“CytoCellDB provides researchers with an invaluable tool to understand which commonly used cancer cell lines contain ecDNA and other chromosomal aberrations,” said Dr. Elizabeth Brunk, senior and corresponding author of the paper, IBGS faculty member, and an assistant professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Chemistry. “CytoCellDB represents a significant step toward understanding ecDNA, paving the way to more effective treatments and improved outcomes for over 15% of cancers that harbor ecDNA.”

Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) alters how cells divide, express RNA and respond to drug treatments. Without knowing which model systems contain ecDNA, researchers cannot fully understand why some cells respond differently to drugs. EcDNA, also known as double-minute chromosomes, are established markers for malignancy and genome instability, playing a crucial role in cancer proliferation, drug resistance and epigenetic remodeling, which are changes in gene expression that don’t involve alterations in the DNA sequence itself.

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Parul Johri, PhD

Parul Johri, IBGS faculty member and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and the Department of Genetics, has been awarded this year’s Early Career Excellence Award from the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), the top young investigator award in her field of research.

This award is intended for outstanding members of the SMBE community who are in the early stages of an independent research career (3-7 years post-Ph.D.). The primary signal of research excellence is a trajectory of innovative, creative research that is moving the field of Molecular Biology and Evolution forward. The prize includes recognition at the annual SMBE banquet, a cash prize, and a travel award to attend the annual meeting.

The Johri Lab focuses on how non-adaptive evolutionary processes, including selection against deleterious mutations, population history, and genome architecture, act to jointly shape genomic variation. Research in the lab involves a combination of computational and theoretical approaches, statistical method development, and analyses of sequence variation data from natural populations. Parul received her Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Delhi, and a Master’s in Biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. She earned her PhD in the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior program at Indiana University, Bloomington, under the supervision of Michael Lynch in 2018, and completed her postdoctoral work with Jeffrey Jensen at Arizona State University (2018-2022). Parul started her lab at UNC in 2023.

Learn more about the SMBE and past award recipients.

A fruit fly wing, enhanced with red and green fluorescence to study genes involved in development over time.

The following article, highlighting the work of Daniel McKay, PhD, IBGS faculty member, appeared in the May 25, 2017 edition of UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine’s Vital Signs newsletter and highlights findings published in the June issue of Genes and Development.

Every animal starts as a clump of cells, which over time multiply and mature into many different types of cells, tissues, and organs. This is fundamental biology. Yet, the details of this process remain largely mysterious. Now, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have begun to unravel an important part of that mystery.

Using the fruit fly Drosophila, a standard lab model for studying animal biology, the researchers discovered a cascade of molecular signals that program gene activity to drive the fly from one stage of maturation to the next, like a baby turning into an adult. Part of this programming, they found, involves alterations to the way DNA is packaged. Those alterations open up certain regions of DNA to allow gene activity and close off other regions to prevent gene activity. The scientists found evidence that these changes to DNA accessibility occur in sequence.

“We’re finally getting at one of the core mechanisms in biology, which determine the timing and sequence of events in normal animal development at the level of our genes,” said Daniel J. McKay, PhD, assistant professor of genetics at the UNC School of Medicine and biology at the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

Read more at the UNC School of Medicine Newsroom…
 

Duronio, McKay, Strahl, Matera co-authored the paper that appeared in the August 2016 publication of Genes and Discovery.

The following article, highlighting the work of IBGS faculty members Robert Duronio, PhD; Daniel McKay, PhD; Greg Matera, PhD; Brian Strahl, PhD., appeared in the September 1, 2016 edition of UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine’s Vital Signs newsletter and highlights findings published in the Volume 30, No. 15 release of Genes and Discovery.

UNC School of Medicine researchers discovered that the major developmental function of heterochromatin – a form of tight DNA packaging found in chromosomes – may be to suppress activity of virus-like DNA elements known as transposons or “jumping genes,” which can otherwise copy and paste themselves throughout the genome, potentially destroying important genes, and causing cancers and other diseases.

Read more at the UNC School of Medicine Newsroom…

Dr. Jill Dowen is a recipient of the 2016 Kimmel Scholar Award.

IBGS extends its congratulations to Dr. Jill Dowen, supported IBGS faculty and Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics and Biology, on her selection as a 2016 Sidney Kimmel Foundation Scholar award recipient. She is one of 15 junior researchers selected to receive the $200,000 award based on the promise and innovation of their work. Dowen’s project is entitled “Role of long-range chromosomal interactions in cancer.”

Learn more about the Sidney Kimmel Foundation, Dowen’s selection, and the Jill Dowen Lab.

From top left: Blossom Damania, Phd, David Peden, MD, Brian Strahl, PhD, and Robert Duronio, PhD. Image courtesy of UNC Heath Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.

Robert Duronio, PhD, assistant dean for research at the UNC School of Medicine, professor of genetics and biology, and director of the Integrative Program for Biological and Genome Sciences, recently headed to Capital Hill with three other UNC investigators to bring awareness to the need for more federally funded medical research.

Read the full story here.

The following article, highlighting the work of Robert Duronio, PhD; Daniel McKay, PhD; Greg Matera, PhD; Brian Strahl, PhD., appeared in the February 12, 2015 edition of UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine’s Vital Signs newsletter.

Epigenetic Breakthrough: A first of its kind tool to study the histone code

Robert Duronio, PhD; Daniel McKay, PhD; Greg Matera, PhD; Brian Strahl, PhD., Photo courtesy of UNC Health Care/School of Medicine News.

University of North Carolina scientists have created a new research tool, based on the fruit fly, to help crack the histone code. This research tool can be used to better understand the function of histone proteins, which play critical roles in the regulation of gene expression in animals and plants.

This work, published in the journal Developmental Cell, opens the door to experiments that are expected to uncover new biology important for a host of conditions, such as neurological diseases, diabetes, obesity, and especially cancer, which has become a hotbed of epigenetic research.

Read the full article here