Mouzakis, Kathryn - Fort Lewis College - Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

个人简介

RNA structure and function Translational regulation of gene expression Nucleic acids biochemistry Ph.D., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2013 B.S., Chemistry-Biology, Harvey Mudd College, 2007 Katie Mouzakis is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Fort Lewis College. She joined the college in 2013. Dr. Mouzakis researches the relationship between the structure and function of cis-acting viral RNAs. Currently, she is using mutagenesis, chemical probing, and in vitro translation assays to determine what RNA structures are required for efficient -1 PRF in human t-cell lymphotropic virus. She has presented her research at conferences around the world such as the Annual Meetings of the RNA Society and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Mouzakis mentors many undergraduate students doing research on various biochemical topics, from determining RNA secondary structures to eludicating the mechanism of -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting. In 2017, Dr. Mouzakis was awarded $400,000 to study RNA and viruses from the National Institutes of Health, and was named a Cottrell Scholar from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement.

研究领域

Funded by a National Science Foundation grant (the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP)/Four Corners Undergraduate STEM Success (FOCUSS) Grant) as well as the School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Katie Mouzakis and Fort Lewis students: Devon Chadeayne (Chemistry-Biochemistry major, class of 2017), Kathryn Durnford (Cell and Molecular Biology major, class of 2015), Eliza Finke (Cell and Molecular Biology major, class of 2017), and Rebecca Salamon (Cell and Molecular Biology major, class of 2018) have spent two summers using biochemical techniques to research how unique RNA sequences can adopt highly specific functions. Dr. Mouzakis says that the RNA structures in HTLV’s frameshift sites have not been studied in great detail. Fort Lewis students are doing original research to determine the RNA structures and their function within these sites. Dr. Mouzakis has researched RNA structure and function for seven years—previously in her Ph.D. alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied the structure and function of HIV RNA, and now at Fort Lewis College, where she is studying HTLV.

近期论文

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Complete tRNA mimicry within a viral internal ribosome entry site mediates translational reading frame selection.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015 “Dynamic Motions of the HIV-1 Frameshift Site RNA.” Biophysical Journal, 2015. “Structure and dynamics of the HIV-1 frameshift element RNA,” Biochemistry, 2014 “HIV-1 frameshift efficiency is primarily determined by the stability of base pairs positioned at the mRNA entrance channel of the ribosome,” Nucleic Acids Research, 2013 “Investigating RNAs Involved in Translational Control by NMR and SAXS”, in Biophysical Approaches to Translational Control of Gene Expression, 2012