Sandra Wolin

I am the Chief of the RNA Biology Laboratory in the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, a position similar to the chair of a small university department. I moved to the NCI after many years as a Professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at the Yale School of Medicine.

My laboratory studies the biogenesis, function and turnover of noncoding RNA molecules.  Most cellular RNA does not encode proteins, and unprocessed and damaged RNAs can accumulate due to RNA misfolding, processing mistakes, and failure of RNAs to assemble with their correct proteins. We study 1) the chaperone proteins that assist noncoding RNA folding, 2) the functions of the correctly folded and assembled noncoding RNAs, 3) the cellular pathways that recognize and eliminate defective RNAs, and 4) the ways in which failure to remove these RNAs affects cell function and contributes to human disease.