The Molecular Biology of RNA

Michael Ladomery began his career with a BSc(Hons) degree in Genetics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He then did a PhD at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, on the analysis of mRNA-bound proteins in Xenopus oocytes in John Sommerville's lab. He then worked as a postdoctoral research associate at St Andrews for a year, funded by the Wellcome Trust, characterising the RNA helicase Xp54 before becoming a research associate at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, exploring the posttranscriptional roles of the Wilms' tumour suppressor WT1 in Nick Hastie's group. He obtained a lectureship at the University of the West of England in Bristol. He is an enthusiastic advocate of the RNA field, setting up the Scottish RNA Club in the 1990s, and then the Southwest UK RNA club in 2006. Together with David Elliott he wrote the first dedicated RNA biology textbook, The Molecular Biology of RNA in 2010 for OUP, the second edition of which published in 2015.David Elliott completed his first degree at the University of Birmingham, and then his PhD at the University of Glasgow studying mitochondrial gene expression. He then worked for four years in Boston in the lab of Michael Rosbash, studying RNA processing in yeast. David then moved to the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, studying RNA-binding proteins involved in male infertility. He then obtained a lectureship at Newcastle University, where his group has analysed the role of RNA processing in development and disease.

This book has distilled many of the concepts around RNA biology into an accessible and compact read that would be suitable for a wide range of students, including those at postgraduate level to help them get up to speed with the topic.

• 1: Introduction to RNA biology 2: RNA structure and RNA-binding proteins 3: RNA catalysis 4: Precursor messenger RNA processing 5: RNA traffic 6: Messenger RNA translation 7: Regulation of mRNA stability 8: The regulatory non-coding RNAs Glossary