Dr. Gideon Dreyfuss

Dr. Gideon Dreyfuss, Isaac Norris Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Dr. Dreyfuss received his Ph.D. degree in biological chemistry from Harvard University in 1978 and was a Helen Hay Whitney post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his present appointment, he was Professor and Established Investigator of the American Heart Association at Northwestern University.

Dr. Dreyfuss is chiefly interested in the transport of RNAs and proteins between the nucleus and cytoplasm and in the molecular functions of SMN, the protein responsible for the neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy.

The research efforts of the Dreyfuss laboratory are presently focused on four interrelated topics:

* The transport of proteins and RNAs between the nucleus and the cytoplasm.

* The molecular function of SMN (Survival of Motor Neurons), the protein product of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) disease gene

* The structure and function of the hnRNP proteins, with particular focus on the role of these proteins in the formation and function of mRNA

* Novel phage display methods for identification of interacting proteins.

Two of Dr. Dreyfuss' more recent publications include: Nakielny, S. and G. Dreyfuss (1999) Transport of proteins and RNAs in and out of the nucleus. Cell 99:677-690 and Kataoka, N., J. Yong, V.N. Kim, F. Velazquez, R.A. Perkison, F. Wang and G. Dreyfuss (2000) Pre-mRNA splicing imprints mRNA in the nucleus with a novel RNA-binding protein that persists in the cytoplasm. Mol. Cell 6:673-682