Spitale Research Group | UC Irvine

Chemical & Systems Biology

Introduction

  Welcome to our lab website! Our lab is affiliated with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, the Center for Neurobiology Learning and Memory, and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (CFCCC) at the University of Califoria, Irvine.

   Our lab research is focused at understanding how the flow of genetic information is controlled inside cells and altered to result in disease phenotypes. We are particularly interested in understanding how Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) molecules control such pathways. We focus on developing novel chemical approaches toward this difficult problem. We are also interested in how chemistry or new chemical methods can be developed toward understanding how RNA molecules fold into complex structures, how they interact with proteins, and finally where they are localized within living cells. We also focus on diving into the biological significance of our observations, by seeking a causal relationship between RNA function and disease. We lastly aim to provide novel insight that could be utilized in the design of novel therapeutic strategies for controlling and/or preventing deleterious RNA functions.