Mihaela Zavolan

Mihaela Zavolan ( born April 23, 1968 in Timişoara) is a Romanian system biologist and professor at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.

Life

Mihaela Zavolan studied medicine at the Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Timisoara, Romania. Subsequently, she received her PhD in Computer Science at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, United States. In the U.S., Zavolan investigated between 1993 and 2003 and the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, and at the Rockefeller University in New York. 2003 Mihaela Zavolan Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel and group leader at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB ).

Work

Zavolan researched called microRNAs (miRNAs ). This 22 nucleotide long RNA molecules regulate the expression of protein-coding genes and thus control cell differentiation, metabolism, and immune response of the cells. Through the development of high-throughput methods combined with computer analysis discovered Zavolan numerous miRNAs in various organisms from viruses to humans. She developed computer programs to accurately predict miRNA genes in genome and of target mRNAs. In addition, Michaela Zavolan worked on the development of the CLIP method with ( Crosslinking and Immunoprecipitation ) to localize the binding sites between messenger RNAs ( mRNAs ) and regulatory proteins ( RBP). They also designed a biophysical model, with the interaction and bonding strength between miRNAs and mRNAs can be predicted.

Awards

2012 ERC Starting Grant

Publications (selection )

• Khorshid M, Hausser J, Zavolan M, van Nimwegen E. A biophysical miRNA - mRNA interaction model infers canonical and noncanonical targets. Nat Methods. 2013 Mar, 10 ( 3) :253 - fifth doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2341. Epub 2013 Jan 20 PMID 23,334,102th

• Kishore S, Jaskiewicz L, Burger L, Hausser J, Khorshid M, Zavolan M. A quantitative analysis of CLIP methods for Identifying binding sites of RNA - binding proteins. Nat Methods. 2011 May 15; 8 ( 7) :559 -64. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1608. PMID 21,572,407th

• Landgraf P, Rusu M, Sheridan R, Sewer A, Iovino N, Aravin A, Pfeffer S, Rice A, Kamphorst AO, Landthaler M, Lin C, Socci ND, Hermida L, Fulci V, Chiaretti S, Foà R, Schliwka J, Fuchs U, Novosel A, Muller RU, Schermer B, Bissels U, Inman J, Phan Q, Chien M, Weir DB, Choksi R, De Vita G, Frezzetti D, Trompeter HI, Hornung V, Teng G, Hartmann G, Palkovits M, Di Lauro R, Wernet P, Macino G, Rogler CE, Nagle JW, Ju J, Papavasiliou FN, Benzing T, lights P, Tam W, Brownstein MJ, Bosio A, Borkhardt A, Russo JJ, Sander C, Zavolan M, Tuschl T. A mammalian microRNA expression atlas based on small RNA library sequencing. Cell. 2007 June 29; 129 ( 7) :1401 - 14th PMID 17604727; PMC 2681231 (Free full text ).

• Gaidatzis D, van Nimwegen E, Hausser J, Zavolan M. Inference of miRNA targets using evolutionary conservation and pathway analysis. BMC Bioinformatics. 2007 Mar 1; 8:69. Erratum in: BMC Bioinformatics. 2007 Jul 12; 8 (1): 248 PMID 17331257; PMC 1838429 (Free full text ).

• Aravin A, Gaidatzis D, Pfeffer S, Lagos - Quintana M, Landgraf P, Iovino N, Morris P, Brownstein MJ, Kuramochi - Miyagawa S, Nakano T, Chien M, Russo JJ, Ju J, Sheridan R, Sander C, Zavolan M, Tuschl T. A novel class of small RNAs bind to MILI protein in mouse testes. Nature. 2006 July 13, 442 ( 7099 ) :203 - seventh Epub 2006 June 4 PMID 16,751,777th