Momentum-Maus

Implementing Novel Tools to Manipulate the Transcriptome in Mouse

01/04/2021 to 31/03/2026

During the last years, my lab pioneered the field of site-directed RNA editing, which is a method to recode genetic information on the mRNA. Compared to gene editing, the method is much more efficient, can be performed on several transcripts in parallel, and is reversible. All this is advantageous if one wants to manipulate regulatory functions, which often leads to lethality or genetic compensation if done by means of genome editing. My research group has developed several RNA editing approaches, particularly the SNAP-ADAR and the RESTORE approach. Initially, all tools were examined exclusively in vitro, and in the meantime broadly established in cell culture. The next step is to test and further optimize the tools in vivo in order to exploit their full potential for basic research and for medical translation. Therefore, in a perspective extension of the professorship, the corresponding mouse work will be developed and established in the laboratory. The editing tools may be used to better understand disease mechanisms, or to interfere with essential biological processes such as inflammation or metabolism in the future. The aim is to establish the SNAP-ADAR approach in transgenic mice, which has not been tested in mice before.