Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130
When we get sick, we get a fever. We’ve been taught that a rising temperature means your immune system is actively fighting off an infection. But what does that mean at the most basic core of your body, your genes? Michael Abdelsayed hopes to find out, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is backing his efforts.
The assistant professor of biology at California State University, Northridge has been awarded a five-year $2 million NIH R35 grant to study how thermoregulatory RNAs — single-stranded molecules, known as ribonucleic acids, found in all living cells that carry out the instructions stored in DNA to build proteins — respond to heat stress. His research could have impact on what types and when certain medicines are given to patients.
“We hope to learn how genes are regulated essentially in response to temperature,” said Abdelsayed, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Science and Mathematics. “While there’s already a lot known about that, we know much less about the role RNA structure plays in regulating gene expression in response to fluctuating temperatures. So, we’re taking a different approach than most people. We are also engineering non-natural synthetic RNA tools to turn on gene expression in response to changes in temperatures, with potential applications in biotechnology.”
NIH R35 grants are not usually awarded to faculty at comprehensive institutions like CSUN, which doesn’t have doctoral programs in the hard sciences. Abdelsayed said he was honored to be a rare recipient of such a grant.
“It will help me set up my lab and support my students as we do this important work,” he said.
Abdelsayed’s lab, affectionally dubbed the “Scream Team” by his students, is dedicated to advancing the understanding of thermoregulatory RNA elements. Its primary focus is the discovery and characterization of RNA thermometers, RNA structures that play a crucial role in temperature regulation in biological systems.
“My research entails a lot of molecular biology and biochemistry work with bacteria,” he explained.
The process begins with the student researchers, masters’ degree candidates, using a computer to identify the RNA they want to study. They then move on to the bench and “break open and analyze” the RNA in bacteria, Abdelsayed said.
Specifically, Abdelsayed and his team are looking at the RNA structures in prokaryotes (single-celled microscopic organisms that lack a distinct nucleus and other membrane-bound internal organelles and have a roll in make proteins) and bacteria to understand how their gene expression will change when the temperature changes, and how that changes the structure of the RNAs.
“Temperature variation is a critical environmental factor that influences microbial survival, pathogenesis and symbiosis, particularly during transitions from external environments to warm-blooded hosts,” Abdelsayed said. “For pathogens and members of the human gut microbiota, the ability to sense and adapt to host temperature fluctuations is essential for survival.
“We get hot when we get a fever,” he explained. “When we develop a fever, our body temperature rises as a part of the immune response to infection. But a way for the bacteria to fight back is to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to upregulate all these genes (increase its cellular or biological response to the situation) that will help them survive the stress and increase their ability to cause disease.’ Why this is occurring is very important, especially because, if we find a specific RNA that is doing it, a specific RNA structure, that might be a target for an antibiotic, for a new antibiotic or a new medication.”
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