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K-State Today

March 7, 2019

David Bedwell presents Division of Biology Seminar March 8

Submitted by Division of Biology

David Bedwell, professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will present "Suppression of Nonsense Mutations to Treat Genetic Diseases" as part of the Division of Biology Seminar Series at 4 p.m. Friday, March 8, in 221 Ackert Hall.

Bedwell will talk on 11 percent of all disease-causing mutations that are nonsense mutations, which generate in-frame premature termination codons, or PTCs, in the mRNA. A PTC reduces protein expression by: terminating translation before a full-length protein is made; and destabilizing the mRNA by activating nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, or NMD, a pathway that recognizes and degrades PTC-containing mRNAs. It follows that translation termination and NMD represent potential therapeutic targets for drug discovery to treat diseases caused by PTCs. By modulating one or both of these pathways to suppress the effects of PTCs, Bedwell hypothesizes that protein function can be directly restored for many genetic diseases. This seminar will discuss how translation termination works and provide his current progress in developing small molecules that suppress PTCs to treat various genetic disorders.

If you would like to visit with Bedwell, contact Luke Messer at clukemesser@k-state.edu.