About the Strauss Laboratory
Dr.
William Strauss heads the Strauss Laboratory at the Department of Molecular,
Chemical and Developmental Biology (MCDB)
at the University of Colorado,
Boulder -
The
research focus of my laboratory is Regulation of Gene Expression, and Gene
Dosage Compensation at the genomic level. We are also interested in the long
range structure of chromosomes, especially as chromosome structure may
determine function. In particular, we are currently trying to understand:
-
The structure and organization of the large non-translated RNA Xist,
which functions in chromosome mediated gene silencing
-
The biological function of the Xist RNA as a means to induce
transcriptional silencing, or functional loss of heterozygousity (LOH) on
the mammalian X-chromosome, and
-
To
develop new technological means to study the mammalian chromosomes.
Our
recent accomplishment in the area of mammalian dosage compensation includes
the revision of the genomic structure for the Xist gene, as well as a
revision and elucidation of the Xist RNA structure. We have also established
the Xist RNA is a functional molecule that must physically associate with a
chromosome in order to direct cis-silencing.
We have developed a technology for studying the
structure of chromosomes, based on Polyamide Nucleic Acid (PNA) chemistry.
PNAs are nucleic acid mimics that contain a pseudo-peptide backbone composed
of charge neutral and achiral N-(2-aminoethyl) glycine units to which the
nucleobases are attached via a methylene carbonyl linker . These probes
offer some distinct advantages over conventional nucleic acids. Most
importantly PNA probes can be very small (12 Ò 20 mers), show strong signals
and very low background. In our previous experiments we have and developed
PNA probes which permit the enumeration of chromosome number in interphase
cells. These probes are chromosome specific yet they are less than 20 bases
in length. Because of their size, strong signals, and low background, these
same probes have been shown to be very effective in enumerating chromosome
number in tissues. Using this technology we have been able to specifically
label particular human chromosomes. We call these probes chromosome specific.
Another type of labeling pattern is called
chromosome characteristic.
Chromosome characteristic probes label the chromosomes with banding patterns
that are unique for each chromosome. The area of
PNA-FISH is a new
area at the intersection of Genomics and single molecule analysis.
The
people who have worked in these different areas have changed over time, and
a complete list can be reviewed.
A current list of
publications in PDF
offers a more complete treatment of our research than these pages can hope
to accomplish.
For students course notes can be found by following
this
link
