Seminar/ Colloquium

Title : RNA-based Genome Surveillance Mechanisms.
Speaker : Dr. Sree Rama Chaitanya Sridhara, Research Associate, CDFD, Hyderabad
Date : 11/10/2022, 05:30 PM , Ramanujan Hall, IISER Tirupati Transit Campus.

Abstract:  Co-transcriptional R-loops (or RNA-DNA hybrids) came far from being simple by-products of transcription to crucial players in genome structure and function. But it was not known how cells sense and signal aberrant R-loops, which if left unresolved could damage DNA. In this regard, we reported that aberrant pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) initiates a signalling cascade whereby the serine/arginine protein kinase 2 (SRPK2) phosphorylates the DEAD-box helicase 23 (DDX23), culminating in the suppression of R-loops. We were the first to describe the role of SRPK2 and DDX23 in R-loop biology and propose that RNA Pol II transcription dynamics could signal aberrant R-loops.

(https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496844 @CDFD, India).

Bio sketch:

I did my Master’s in Advanced Biochemistry (2009) from the University of Chennai and later worked as a junior researcher at the AU-KBC research center (Chennai, 2011) on the cell biology of nitric oxide signaling in endothelial cell function and angiogenesis. Then I went to the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal with a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds and Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship to pursue my Ph.D. (2017) in RNA splicing mechanisms and DNA damage response. I then continued as a postdoc in the same institute until I returned to India (just before the pandemic). Later I joined CDFD as a research associate and now looking for exciting positions to do research in understanding how RNA-based mechanisms support genome maintenance (a short video, if necessary, here).