Brenda Bass, Ph.D.
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Biochemistry Adjunct Associate Professor, Human Genetics.
RESEARCH SUMMARY & GOALS
My laboratory has a general interest in the biological roles of double-stranded
RNA (dsRNA) and dsRNA binding proteins (dsRBPs). One of the dsRBPs we study
is a member of a family of enzymes, found in many metazoa, called adenosine
deaminases that act on RNA (ADARs). These enzymes deaminate adenosines
within cellular and viral RNAs that are double-stranded, or largely
double-stranded, to create the nucleoside inosine. ADARs deaminate the
hepatitis delta virus (HDV) antigenomic RNA to change an amber stop codon
(UAG) to a tryptophan codon (UIG), so that a short and a long form of the
hepatitis delta antigen, both of which are essential for the normal viral life
cycle, can be synthesized from the same open reading frame.
BIOGRAPHY
Post Doctoral Fellowship, Department of Genetics, Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Center.
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Colorado.
B.A. Chemistry, University of Colorado.
LABORATORY
INFORMATION
www.biochem.utah.edu/bass
