Date | 14 Jan 2025 |
Time | 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm (HKT) |
Venue | Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building |
Speaker | Prof. Chuan HE |
Institution | John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor; Department of Chemistry & Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; The University of Chicago |

Rayson Huang Visiting Lectureship in Chemistry
*Research Seminar for Postgraduate students*
Title:
Nucleic Acid Chemical Labeling
Schedule:
Date: 14th January, 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (HKT)
Venue: Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building
Speaker:
Prof. Chuan He
John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor
Department of Chemistry & Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Department of Chemistry & Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The University of Chicago
Biography:
Prof. He is the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago. He received his bachelor of science degree in 1994 from the University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000, studying under professor Stephen J. Lippard. After training as a Damon-Runyon postdoctoral fellow with professor Gregory L. Verdine at Harvard University, he joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor, rising to associate professor in 2008 and full professor in 2010. He was selected as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2013. Prof. He’s research spans a broad range of fields including chemical biology, RNA biology, epigenetics, biochemistry, and genomics. His recent research concerns reversible RNA and DNA methylation in biological regulation. In 2011, his group discovered reversible RNA methylation as a new mechanism of gene expression regulation. His laboratory characterized the RNA m6A methyltransferase complex and several key reader proteins that bind preferentially to m6A-modified RNA and regulate their stability and translation. In 2020, Prof. He’s laboratory reported prevalent m6A methylation on chromatin-associated regulatory RNAs (carRNAs), which regulates chromatin state and global transcription. The reversible methylation of carRNA controls mammalian and plant development. His laboratory also spearheaded the development of enabling technologies to study RNA and DNA modifications as well as gene expression regulation.
Abstract:
I will present our efforts to design and develop molecular probes that can selective label nucleic acids in vitro and inside cells. These probes allow RNA secondary structure mapping, profiling single-stranded DNA for active transcription annotation, mapping RNA-RNA interactions inside cells, and covalent targeting of nucleic acids. I will use two examples to highlight advantages of these new chemical biology technologies in uncovering new biology. In the first example, we have employed kethoxal-assisted single-stranded DNA sequencing (KAS-seq) to elucidate a new T cell activation pathway mediated through a diet nutrient lipid component. In the second example, we have developed kethoxal-assisted RNA–RNA interaction sequencing (KARR-seq) to study RNA-RNA base pairing. Using a further optimized KARR-seq we have detected thousands of previously unknown small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA)-mRNA interactions and discovered a new pathway that facilitates protein secretion and membrane protein biogenesis through SNORA73.
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