In transcription, the protein-making information encoded in genes within a cell’s nucleus is copied, or transcribed, by molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA). The mRNA molecules then travel to the cytoplasm, where they act as templates for protein synthesis. In breakthrough research several years ago, Robert Singer, Ph.D., invented a technique using fluorescent probes to follow individual mRNAs from transcription (birth) to degradation (death).

Now, Dr. Singer has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a method for imaging single mRNA molecules throughout their entire life cycle: from when they are first transcribed in the nucleus to when they degrade following protein synthesis in the cytoplasm.

Dr. Singer is professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology, as well as co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center and of the Integrated Imaging Program at Einstein. He is also professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and of cell biology and the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Anatomy & Structural Biology at Einstein. (1 R35 GM136296-01)