Prof. Atlanta G. Cook
Personal chair of Structural Biology of Gene Expression
- Centre for Cell Biology
- Institute for Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Contact details
- Tel: +44 131 6504995
- Email: atlanta.cook@ed.ac.uk
Background
Personal chair of Structural Biology of Gene Expression (2022-present)
WT Senior Research Fellow at Wellcome Trust centre for Cell Biology in Edinburgh (2016-2022)
MRC career development Fellow at Wellcome Trust centre for Cell Biology in Edinburgh (2011-2016)
Postdoctoral research Fellow, MPI for biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany (2007-2010)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow EMBL Heidelberg, Germany (2004-2007)
Qualifications
DPhil, Biochemistry, Oxford University (1999-2003)
MBiochemistry, Oxford University (1995-1999)
Responsibilities & affiliations
Honours Programme Organiser for Biochemistry
Undergraduate teaching
Honours Programme Organiser for Biochemistry
Research summary
The expression of individual genes is controlled at the levels of mRNA transcription and also post-transcriptionally, by processes such as splicing, localization, modification or editing, and degradation. To gain a mechanistic understanding of these processes it is important to understand the interactions between the individual players, including both protein and nucleic acid components, at the molecular level. We have used structural approaches to tackle mechanistic questions about how protein-RNA interactions can control RNA maturation and RNA editing and how transcriptional repressors are recruited to methylated DNA. By combining structural studies with biochemical, biophysical and cell-based functional assays we can gain powerful insights into these molecular processes.