Banh Lab - #front-page

The diversity of human phenotypes are ultimately driven by the differences in our individual genomes and their interaction with the environment. To date, we still do not completely understand how human phenotypes are driven by genetics and their response to changes in the environment. At the same time, the role, contribution, and impact of all mutations in cancer are not well understood.

In cells, DNA act as the genetic blueprint for the production of proteins that work to regulate life-essential cellular processes, such as cell growth, death, adaptation, structure, and migration. DNA is first copied into messenger RNA (mRNA) through a process known as transcription, and then the information on mRNA is used to make proteins by a process known as mRNA translation. This entire process relies on several elegant and well-ordered reactions carried out by various cellular machines. The genetic code is a string of three nucleotide bases (A, G, C, T/U) called a “codon” that corresponds to a specific amino acid (or stop codon) during mRNA translation. There are 61 odons corresponding to one of the 20 amino acids and 3 stop codons in humans. Besides methionine and tryptophan, which have one codon each, there are two to six codons for the remaining 18 amino acids. How differences in our genetic code affect our response to the environment is not clear.

Nutrients can regulate multiple steps needed to translate genes into proteins in humans, including transcription, mRNA translation initiation, and mRNA translation elongation. Our laboratory’s research goal is to decipher the laws and regulatory mechanisms of genetic diversity on mRNA translation in response to various nutrient environment, understand their roles in human health and disease, and ultimately harness our findings to identify novel therapeutic targets to improve the outcome of patients.