“Towards molecular systems biology of genome transcription”. Patrick Cramer

Cramer’s work aims to elucidate the mechanisms of genome transcription and its regulation in eukaryotic cells. Using structural biology methods and functional genomics, Cramer characterized the Pol II-mediator core initiation complex and the tail module that faces upstream DNA. Recent results described a cellular mechanism that buffers mRNA levels by compensating changes in mRNA synthesis and degradation and the discovery of the Xrn1 nuclease as a key enzyme in this homeostatic control. Finally, he gave a genome-wide description of specific termination of non coding-RNA synthesis that underlies transcriptome surveillance.