Andrew Fire

Postdoctoral Advisees

Guoping Gu , Ayelet-Taly Lamm , Cecilia Mello , Julia Pak

Web Site Links

• Fire Lab

Current Research Interests

Our lab studies the mechanisms by which cells and organisms respond to genetic change.

The genetic landscape faced by a living cell is constantly changing. Developmental transitions, environmental shifts, and pathogenic invasions lend a dynamic character to both the genome and its activity pattern.We study a variety of natural mechanisms that are utilized by cells adapting to genetic change. These include mechanisms activated during normal development and systems for detecting and responding to foreign or unwanted genetic activity. At the root of these studies are questions of how a cell can distinguish "self" versus "nonself" and "wanted" versus "unwanted" gene expression.

We primarily make use of the nematode C. elegans in our experimental studies. C. elegans is small, easily cultured, and can readily be made to accept foreign DNA or RNA. The results of such experiments have outlined a number of concerted responses that recognize (and in most cases work to silence) the foreign nucleic acid. One such mechanism ("RNAi") responds to double stranded character in RNA: either as introduced experimentally into the organism or as produced from foreign DNA that has not undergone selection to avoid a dsRNA response. Much of the current effort in the lab is directed toward a molecular understanding of the RNAi machinery and its roles in the cell. RNAi is not the only cellular defense against unwanted nucleic acid, and substantial current effort in the lab is also directed at identification of other triggers and mechanisms used in recognition and response to foreign information.

Clinical Trials

• Integrated Whole-Genome Analysis of Hematologic Disorders Recruiting

Publications

• Distinct Phases of siRNA Synthesis in an Endogenous RNAi Pathway in C. elegans Soma. Gent JI, Lamm AT, Pavelec DM, Maniar JM, Parameswaran P, Tao L, Kennedy S, Fire AZ. Mol Cell. 2010
• Partitioning the C. elegans genome by nucleosome modification, occupancy, and positioning. Gu SG, Fire A. Chromosoma. 2010; 119 (1): 73-87
• A Caenorhabditis elegans RNA-directed RNA polymerase in sperm development and endogenous RNA interference. Gent JI, Schvarzstein M, Villeneuve AM, Gu SG, Jantsch V, Fire AZ, Baudrimont A. Genetics. 2009; 183 (4): 1297-314
• Profiling and discovery of novel miRNAs from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded melanoma and nodal specimens. Ma Z, Lui WO, Fire A, Dadras SS. J Mol Diagn. 2009; 11 (5): 420-9
• Capped small RNAs and MOV10 in human hepatitis delta virus replication. Haussecker D, Cao D, Huang Y, Parameswaran P, Fire AZ, Kay MA. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2008; 15 (7): 714-21