Maki Inada

Associate Professor, Biology

Research

Interests

The major goal of my research is to understand one of the most fundamental questions in molecular biology today: how do organisms regulate the expression of their genetic material or how are genes turned on and off?   Whereas many mechanisms of transcriptional control are well characterized, we are focusing on the role of pre-mRNA splicing in regulating this process.  Since most eukaryotic genes are interrupted by noncoding sequences called introns, proper gene expression requires the removal of these introns in a process called pre-mRNA splicing.   By changing the order in which the coding regions of genes are spliced together, a process termed alternative splicing, a significant amount of genomic and therefore proteomic diversity can be generated.    In the Inada lab, we use tools from genetics, genomics and molecular biology to examine mechanisms of gene regulation via mRNA splicing, mRNA decay and chromatin modulation in budding and fission yeast.

External Grants

I'm pleased to be granted a two-year, $35,000 Cottrell College Science Award for my project entitled, “Regulation of gene expression by coupling pre-mRNA splicing with RNA decay”. Ithaca College has provided over $10,000 in matching funds. The major goal of this research is to understand one of the most fundamental problems in molecular biology today: how do organisms regulate expression of their genetic material? I will be focusing on the role of pre-mRNA splicing in regulating this process. Because the regulation of splicing is essential for normal cellular function and its mis-regulation is often associated with disease, we expect that understanding the molecular mechanisms that control this pathway will have broad implications for the fields of chemistry, biology and human health.

Student Research

I take on students to work in my lab. If you interested in conducting research in my lab, then please click here.

The Whalen Academic Symposium. Ithaca College.

  • Rachel Rose (Biology '23) "Identifying Novel Splicing Factors: Making use of CRISPR to clean sequencing samples". April 2022.
        By Rachel Rose, Ian O’Neill, Maki Inada
  • Bonnie Marvin (Biology '12) is among the winners of the Whalen Symposium Awards for Outstanding Student Research. "Alterations of Gene Expression through Alternative Splicing Coupled to an mRNA Degradation Pathway"