Scientists from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have recently uncovered the mechanisms of how RNA polymerase II performs intrinsic cleavage reaction to proofread RNA transcriptions, shedding light on how mis-regulation of accurate transcription can lead to diseases including cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

 

The message of life is encoded in our genomic DNA through transcription of messenger RNAs and the translation of proteins to perform cellular functions. To ensure accurate transcription – a process that transcribes genomic DNA into messenger RNA by adding nucleotides one by one like letters in the alphabet. An enzyme called RNA polymerase II would synthesize and proofread messenger RNA to remove any mis-incorporated nucleotides that do not match with the DNA template. Read More... 

 

(From right) Prof. Huang Xuhui and his research team members Dr. Peter CHEUNG, Dr. Carmen TSE and Dr. SHEONG Fu-Kit conduct part of the calculation with HKUST’s computing servers.
Scientific Breakthroughs & Discoveries