D.B. Jay Mahat
Research Scientist
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Host: Leighton Core

Role of Enhancers in Priming Genes Promoting Cancer
Enhancers are non-coding genomic elements that regulate gene expression. I will share my recent work on developing a novel single-cell method that quantifies enhancer and gene activities in individual cells and how such methods can identify cancer-promoting enhancers and elucidate the underlying mechanisms of immunosuppression.

Jay Mahat is a Research Scientist at the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He received his Ph.D. fromCornell University, where he worked with John Lis to dissect the mechanisms of mammalian gene regulation. He then joinedPhil Sharp’s lab at MIT to study the role of non-coding genomes in gene regulation and its dysregulation in diseases. Herecently developed a single-cell nascent RNA sequencing method and unveiled the coordinated transcription throughout thegenome by precisely quantifying active enhancers and genes in individual cells. He has also discovered the role of enhancersin pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma to amplify the expression of immunosuppressive chemokine genes. He is currentlyfocused on utilizing single-cell nascent transcriptomics to study diseases of immune dysfunction, focusing particularly ondissecting the dysregulated transcription program in pancreatic cancers and identifying the genes and pathways impacted bythe genomic risk variants associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Publication: Single-cell nascent RNA sequencing unveils coordinated global trascription

Mahat website

Ryan Drennan
Core Lab

Hyperosmotic stress disrupts proper transcription regulation through altered CTD phosphorylation

MCB Faculty Meeting

Each week, we read a paper and discuss it together (i.e., no formal presentations are given). Everyone is welcome! This week, we’ll be reading “Phage-triggered reverse transcription assembles a toxic repetitive gene from a noncoding RNA” (available here: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adq3977).

The schedule of the readings for the rest of the semester is here: MCB5699_Fall2024.xlsx. Please feel free to drop in anytime!

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Rosie Mirabella will lead a discussion of “Disrupting actin filaments enhances glucose-stimulated insulin secretion independent of the cortical actin cytoskeleton” by Polino et al., 2023.

Alyssa Coulter
Campellone Lab

Shania Kallandanthyil
Hanlon Lab

Dr. Nahui Medina-Chav
University of Minnesota
Host: Geo Santiago-Martinez

Skshada Shankar Ganesh
Erceg Lab