Background:
In 2017, I graduated from the University of the Sciences (Philadelphia, PA) with a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences where I worked under Dr. James Holaska (now at Cooper Medical, NJ) researching Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy. Currently, I am a 3rd year PhD student in the graduate program at the University of Florida. In the fall of 2018, I moved to Albany with Dr. Berglund to join the RNA Institute at SUNY-Albany.
Research:
My current research is focused on a family of RNA binding proteins, called RBFOX family of proteins, that are important alternative splicing (AS) regulators. RBFOX proteins contain a single RNA binding domain that recognizes and binds a discrete motif making them ideal proteins to study AS regulation. The goal is to further understand how RBFOX chooses its RNA binding sites and how that choice affects alternative splicing. To test this, I mainly use RBFOX-inducible cell models.
“Stay on your purpose”
-Joe Ellis