Joyce’s Weblog

During my second semester at the University of Puerto Rico, I was given the opportunity to work at Dr. Carlos I. González laboratory. His laboratory is interested in the control of gene expression at the post transcriptional level in eukaryotic cells. I am specifically working with two different projects in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Both research projects are related to the Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway, an mRNA surveillance mechanism that is responsible for the rapid turnover of mRNAs harboring premature termination codons. My first project focuses on determining the role of an interaction between a cis-acting element (Downstream Sequence Element or DSE) in the RNA and a nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein (Hrp1p), and how this interaction promotes the degradation of aberrant messenger RNAs. The second project is directed towards the identification of the role of Mex67p and Upf1p in translation termination. Along with the findings that we already made, came a new question of how an export protein could be involved in translation termination. In order to test this possibility, we have decided to characterize Mip6p, a protein that interacts with the termination factor (Sup35) and Mex67p. To be able to carry out these projects I have learned techniques such as: Northern Blots, Dual Luciferase Assays, PCRs, in vitro transcription, SDS-PAGE, gel electrophoresis, among others. I have learned that it is necessary to read the literature and look for other ways of thinking that are not necessarily the conventional ones. As a college student, I am looking to find great experiences that will help me develop as an integral professional. I want to become a scientist and make my family proud of my accomplishments. I want to gain more research experience, learn new ways of approaching investigation and broaden my knowledge in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.