Panagiota Kafasla Research Group

Pre-mRNA Alternative splicing (AS) happens in ~95% of human genes and shapes the proteome of any given cell. Signal-directed AS is deterministic for normal biological processes, like tissue development. AS deregulation is sufficient to drive initiation, progression, and therapeutic response of many cancer types.

Our aim is to study the assembly and the role of AS-regulating ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs) that control cancer development and progression in the gastrointestinal system. To dissect not only the way signals are transferred to the nucleus, but also how these signals determine the composition and function of splicing regulating RNPs. Furthermore, focusing on the RNA entities that are important for disease development and progression and characterizing in a single nucleotide level their interactions with RNA-binding proteins will allow interfering with these interactions and will possibly lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches, based on the prevention of non-physiological interactions.