The Darnell lab is developing a hospital-based protocol to study RNA regulation in live samples of human SARS-CoV-2 in human saliva to understand virus-induced changes in the gene regulatory machinery for potential therapeutic value against COVID.
RNA is the driving force of biological complexity, determining which genes any given cell expresses at specific times and under specific circumstances. Darnell developed high-throughput sequencing and crosslinking methods to investigate how RNA binding proteins (RBPs) modulate gene expression. He discovered neuron-specific RNA-binding proteins in the mammalian brain, and studies their link to intellectual function and human disease.
