Tom Maniatis

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University
Fairchild Building
7 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel: (617) 495-5038
Maniatis Home Page

Eukaryotic Gene Expression

We are interested in understanding the mechanisms involved in the regulation of RNA transcription and pre-messenger RNA splicing.

Our studies of transcription involve the characterization of the structure and function of regulated transcriptional enhancers and promoters, and the analysis of the mechanisms involved in the activation of the transcription factor NF-kB.

The major objective of our pre-mRNA splicing studies is to understand the mechanisms involved in regulated alternative splicing. This process requires the assembly of a multi-component splicing enhancer complex. The goal of these studies is to understand how specific splice sites are recognized and how their participation in the splicing reaction is regulated.

Selected Publications:

Thanos, D. and Maniatis, T. (1995). Virus induction of human IFN-b gene requires the assembly of an enhanceosome. Cell 83: 1091-1100.

Zuo, P. and Maniatis, T. (1996). The splicing factor U2AF35 mediates critical protein-protein interactions in constitutive and enhancer-dependent splicing. Genes & Dev., 10:1356-1368.

Lee, F.S., Hagler, J., Chen, Z.J. and Maniatis, T. (1997). Activation of the IxBa kinase compex by MEKK1, a kinase of the JNK pathway. Cell 88:213-222.