RNA Sequence, Structure & Function

Fabrice Leclerc develops bioinformatics tools for the prediction of RNA-protein contacts in three-dimensional space. These programs also predict the RNA sequences that form the best substrates for a given RNA-binding protein. Such tools have potential applications in the design of new drugs.

Maria Costa uses different experimental approaches to study the biology of group II introns, introns that are both ribozymes (catalytic RNAs) and highly abundant mobile genetic elements in bacterial genomes. Group II introns are also of great evolutionary interest as ancestors of fundamental systems in eukaryotes such as nuclear introns, the spliceosome, and retrotransposons. Moreover, these introns are the basis for the development of powerful biotechnological tools for bacterial genome engineering, non-coding RNA mapping or high throughput sequencing.