Professor Chris Smith

My group is interested in the molecular mechanisms of alternative pre-mRNA splicing. Alternative splicing is a key post-transcriptional mechanism for regulation of gene expression, allowing individual genes to generate multiple functionally distinct protein isoforms in a cell-type specific manner. Mis-regulation of splicing programmes is frequently associated with disease. For example, mutations in the RNA binding protein RBM20 lead to misregulated splicing in cardiomyocytes leading to dilated cardiomyopathy.

One of our major interests is in the regulated programmes of alternative splicing that occur during development and differentiation/dedifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells. We aim to define the critical RNA binding proteins that determine the VSMC-specific splicing programmes, to decipher the mechanisms by which they influence splicing outcomes, and also to understand the contribution of the regulated alternative splicing programmes to cell phenotype in health and disease.