Project description:Most human transcripts are alternatively spliced, and many disease-causing mutations affect RNA splicing. Towards better modeling the sequence determinants of alternative splicing, we measured the splicing patterns of nearly 2 million (M) synthetic mini-genes, which include degenerate subsequences totaling to nearly 100M bases of variation. The massive size of these training data allowed us to improve upon current models of splicing as well as to gain new mechanistic insights. Our results show that a vast majority of hexamer sequence motifs measurably influence splice site selection when positioned within alternative exons, with multiple motifs acting additively rather than cooperatively. Intriguingly, motifs that enhance (suppress) exon inclusion in alternative 5’ splicing also enhance (suppress) exon inclusion in alternative 3’ or cassette exon splicing, suggesting a universal mechanism for alternative exon recognition. Finally, our empirically trained models are highly predictive of the effects of naturally occurring variants on alternative splicing in vivo.
Project description:Calcium is a critical signaling molecule in many cell types including immune cells. The calcium-release activated calcium channels (CRAC) responsible for store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) in immune cells are gated by STIM family members functioning as sensors of Ca2+ store content in the endoplasmic reticulum. We investigated the effect of SOCE blocker BTP2 on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) stimulated with the mitogen phytohemagglutinin (PHA).
Project description:Calcium is a critical signaling molecule in many cell types including immune cells. The calcium-release activated calcium channels (CRAC) responsible for store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) in immune cells are gated by STIM family members functioning as sensors of Ca2+ store content in the endoplasmic reticulum. We investigated the effect of SOCE blockers BTP2 and CM4620 on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) polyclonally-stimulated with the mitogen phytohemagglutinin (PHA).