Alexander Stark

Last updated
Alexander Stark
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fieldsgene expression in development, transcription
Institutions
Doctoral advisor Robert B. Russell
Website www.imp.ac.at/groups/alexander-stark/

Alexander Stark (born 1974) is a biochemist and computational biologist working on the regulation of gene expression in development. [1] He is a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) at the Vienna Biocenter and adjunct professor of the Medical University of Vienna. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Alexander Stark grew up in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, and graduated with a diploma in biochemistry in 2000. [3] In 2001, he started to do research for doctoral studies in the group of Robert B. (Rob) Russell at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and obtained his doctorate from the University of Cologne in 2004. [3] Stark remained at EMBL for one more year as a bridging postdoc.

Career

In 2005, [3] Stark became a postdoctoral researcher in the groups of Eric S. Lander and Manolis Kellis at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Boston, USA. His postdoctoral research was supported by EMBO, HFSP, and the Schering Foundation.

In 2008, [3] Stark became group leader [4] at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and was promoted to senior scientist in 2015. [5] He was made adjunct professor of the Medical University of Vienna in 2017. [2]

Research

Alexander Stark studies the regulation of gene expression in response to developmental or environmental stimuli to learn how transcription and transcriptional networks define cellular and developmental programs. [6] [1]

More specifically, he investigates how transcription is regulated at the level of enhancer and core-promoter DNA elements, and the transcription factor and cofactor proteins that mediate transcription activation. He uses genome-wide functional assays, bioinformatics, and mass spectrometry, and develops innovative reporter assays (such as STARR-seq) that provide direct functional readouts. [1]

Some of Stark's most cited publications include Principles of MicroRNA- Target Recognition, [7] bantam Encodes a Developmentally Regulated microRNA that Controls Cell Proliferation and Regulates the Proapoptotic Gene hid in Drosophila, [8] and Histone modifications at human enhancers reflect global cell-type-specific gene expression. [9]

Awards and achievements

Alexander Stark was selected EMBO Young Investigator in 2012; [10] announced as "highly cited researcher" by Thomson Reuters in 2014 [11] and elected member of EMBO in 2015. [12] [13]

Among other grants and fellowships, Stark was awarded a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) in 2009, and a consolidator grant of the ERC in 2015. [14] He is on the editorial boards of Genes & Development [15] and Molecular Systems Biology . [16]

Related Research Articles

Regulation of gene expression

Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products. Sophisticated programs of gene expression are widely observed in biology, for example to trigger developmental pathways, respond to environmental stimuli, or adapt to new food sources. Virtually any step of gene expression can be modulated, from transcriptional initiation, to RNA processing, and to the post-translational modification of a protein. Often, one gene regulator controls another, and so on, in a gene regulatory network.

Primary transcript RNA produced by transcription

A primary transcript is the single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) product synthesized by transcription of DNA, and processed to yield various mature RNA products such as mRNAs, tRNAs, and rRNAs. The primary transcripts designated to be mRNAs are modified in preparation for translation. For example, a precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) is a type of primary transcript that becomes a messenger RNA (mRNA) after processing.

OSR1

Protein odd-skipped-related 1 is a transcription factor that in humans is encoded by the OSR1 gene. The OSR1 and OSR2 transcription factors participate in the normal development of body parts such as the kidney.

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The Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) is an independent biomedical research organisation founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The institute employs around 220 people from over 40 countries, who perform basic research. The IMBA operates in close collaboration with the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), the basic research center of Boehringer Ingelheim. Both institutes are located next to each other at the Vienna Biocenter (VBC).

Chromatin immunoprecipitation

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific genomic regions, such as transcription factors on promoters or other DNA binding sites, and possibly defining cistromes. ChIP also aims to determine the specific location in the genome that various histone modifications are associated with, indicating the target of the histone modifiers.

Bantam microRNA

In molecular biology bantam microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms.

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Eileen E. M. Furlong is an Irish molecular biologist working in the fields of transcription, chromatin biology, developmental biology and genomics. She is known for her work in understanding how the genome is regulated, in particular to how developmental enhancers function, how they interact within three dimensional chromatin topologies and how they drive cell fate decisions during embryogenesis. She is Head of the Department of Genome Biology at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Furlong was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2013, the Academia Europaea in 2016 and to EMBO’s research council in 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Alexander Stark - Systems biology of regulatory motifs & networks". The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  2. 1 2 "Alexander Stark". Research Institute of Molecular Pathology GmbH. IMP. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Alexander Stark". Stark Lab. Research Institute of Molecular Pathology. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  4. ↑ https://www.imp.ac.at/fileadmin/content/About_IMP/Research_Reports/2008_IMP_Research_Report.pdf
  5. ↑ https://www.imp.ac.at/fileadmin/content/IMP_ResearchReport.pdf
  6. ↑ "Deciphering the transcriptional cis-regulatory code". Stark Lab. 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  7. ↑ Brennecke J, Stark A, Russell RB, Cohen SM (2005) Principles of MicroRNA–Target Recognition. PLoS Biol 3(3): e85. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030085
  8. ↑ Brennecke, Julius (4 April 2003). "bantam Encodes a Developmentally Regulated microRNA that Controls Cell Proliferation and Regulates the Proapoptotic Gene hid in Drosophila". Cell. 113 (1): 25–36. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8674(03)00231-9 . PMID   12679032. S2CID   17585984.
  9. ↑ Heintzman, Nathaniel (7 May 2009). "Histone modifications at human enhancers reflect global cell-type-specific gene expression". Nature. 459 (7243): 108–112. Bibcode:2009Natur.459..108H. doi:10.1038/nature07829. PMC   2910248 . PMID   19295514.
  10. ↑ "Find a Young Investigator". EMBO.
  11. ↑ Pathology, The Research Institute of Molecular. "Alexander Stark among the world's most highly cited researchers".
  12. ↑ Pathology, The Research Institute of Molecular. "Press Release: EMBO Accolade for Alexander Stark".
  13. ↑ "Find a Member". EMBO.
  14. ↑ "IMP Scientist Alex Stark awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant". idw-online.de.
  15. ↑ "Genes & Development -- About the Journal". genesdev.cshlp.org.
  16. ↑ "Editors & Board - Molecular Systems Biology". msb.embopress.org.
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