David Morris Lab Site

The Morris Lab

TSAA

Traditional approaches to genome-wide expression analysis measure total transcript levels, irrespective of functional state. This is valuable information, but it gives no insight into the rates of synthesis of the proteins encoded by a transcriptome. We developed new methodology, called Translation State Array Analysis or TSAA, that measures not only transcript level, but also allows an estimate of the loading of ribosomes onto the mRNAs of a transcriptome.

RNA is a mutlifaceted molecule – informational, catalytic, regulatory, structural – but its dominant role from the standpoint of cell phenotype is to be translated into protein. Regulation of gene expression at the level of translation provides a massive and rapid way for a cell to respond to physical, chemical and biological changes in its environment. We study the regulation and coordination of mRNA translation both at the genome-wide scale and at the level of individual molecules.