Daniel R. Schoenberg, Ph.D.

Director, Center for RNA Biology
Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
The Ohio State University

The Schoenberg lab studies the interplay between mRNA metabolism and translational control, and the relationship of these processes to cancer and disorders caused by premature termination codons. One project studies endonuclease-catalyzed mRNA decay.  This differs from the default decay processes in that the enzyme (PMR1) only acts on a subset of the transcriptome, with specificity determined by its binding to these mRNAs while they are engaged by translating ribosomes.  Current work is applying proteomics and microarrays to identify the proteins that comprise the functional mRNP and the sequences that direct mRNAs to this decay process. A related project studies how the endonuclease decay process is activated by a premature termination codon to degrade beta-globin mRNA in Cooley’s anemia.  A third project studies cytoplasmic capping with the goal of identifying the scope of this process and its relationship to translation, mRNA silencing and the reactivation of stored and silenced mRNAs.  Lastly, in collaboration with the Gopalan lab at OSU we are developing ribozymes targeting miR-122 in liver as a potential therapeutic for long-term treatment of hepatitis C virus.

Dan Schoenberg received a B.S. in biochemistry in 1971 from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in experimental oncology in 1997 from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin.  After postdoctoral work in the Department of Cell Biology at Baylor College of Medicine he joined the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences where he rose to full professor before moving to The Ohio State University.  He is Director of the Ohio State Center for RNA Biology (http://rna.osu.edu, professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, a member of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
http://www.osuccc.osu.edu/9187.cfm?person_id=122