Eric Moss

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Contact information
Department of Molecular Biology
UMDNJ
2 Medical Center Drive
Stratford, NJ 08084
Office: 856 566-2896
Fax: 856 566-6291
Education:
BS (Microbiology)
University of Rochester, 1984.
PhD (Microbiology)
Columbia University, 1991.
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Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests
developmental timing, microRNA function, post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, developmental genetics of C. elegans

Key words: C. elegans, development, microRNA, translation, mRNA, RNA-binding protein.

Description of Research
We are investigating how development is controlled in the fourth dimension. Animals posess explicit genetic regulatory mechanisms that control the timing and synchrony of developmental events. Interestingly, the molecules involved are unlike other developmental patterning regulators and often involve post-transcriptional gene regulation. Most prominent among these unusual regulators are the microRNAs which were discovered in the developmental timing pathway of the nematode C. elegans. We are combining biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics to dissect and explore the developmental timing mechanism.

We discovered that Lin-28, an RNA-binding protein and a key developmental timing regulator of C. elegans, is conserved from worms to humans. It appears to be a timing regulator in many developmental events in the mouse and to be regulated by microRNAs through its 3' untranslated region. We are using the power of mouse molecular and developmental biology to extend our understanding of timing from worms to mice and humans.

Selected Publications

Bellacosa A and Moss EG. : Repair: Damage Control. Curr. Biol. 13(12): R482-84, 2003 Notes: Review.

Moss EG and Tang L: Conservation of the heterochronic regulator Lin-28, its developmental expression and microRNA complementary sites Dev Biol. 258(2): 432-42, 2003.

Moss EG: Silencing Unhealthy Alleles Naturally. Trends Biotech 21(5): 185-87, 2003 Notes: Review.

Moss EG and Poethig RS: MicroRNAs: something new under the sun. Curr. Biol 12(20): R699-90, 2002 Notes: Review.

Seggerson K, Tang L, Moss EG: Two genetic circuits repress the Caenorhabditis elegans heterochronic gene lin-28 after translation initiation Dev. Biol. 243(2): 215-25, 2002.

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Last updated: 08/23/2006
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania