Dr. Laura Cassiday This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Bio.com -- Biotech, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical News and Featured Articles

   smi.bio.com/newsfeatures/newsf - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/19/2003   Last Visited: 3/23/2003

   In the paper, L. James Maher, III, Ph.D., and Laura Cassiday, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, describe their success with yeast cells and decoy RNA.
   ...
   Maher and Cassiday have used the RNA/NF-kappaB pairs to divert the NF-kappaB protein.
   ...
   "Theoretically, if we want to stop any of these diseases in which NF-kappaB is known to be involved -- cancers, AIDS, some inflammatory diseases -- we'd like to stop the action of this protein; that would be a long-term goal," adds Dr. Cassiday, who is a post-doctoral fellow at Mayo Graduate School. "Our short-term goal is to learn the capabilities of these small, folded RNAs."
   
   The Experiment: How It Works, Where It Leads
   
   Step 1: Test tube experiments
   
   ...
   Drs. Maher and Cassiday had to see if the decoy RNA could bind NF-kappaB not just in a test tube but in the chaos of a cell.
   
   "It's a whole different ball game in the cell, because there are thousands of other proteins that the RNA might bind to," says Dr. Cassiday. "These proteins could distract it from what we want it to do: find and bind to NF-kappaB. We weren't sure the RNA was specific enough to target NF-kappaB under these conditions. Also, there are all sorts of enzymes that degrade RNA within a cell. We weren't sure the RNA would be stable enough to survive and do its job. These were all considerations that needed to be resolved in our cellular experiments."

2. 2. Untitled Document

   www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4t - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/24/2002   Last Visited: 3/26/2003

   In the paper, L. James Maher, III, Ph.D., and Laura Cassiday, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, describe their success with yeast cells and decoy RNA.
   ...
   Maher and Cassiday have used the RNA/NF-kappaB pairs to divert the NF-kappaB protein.
   ...
   "Theoretically, if we want to stop any of these diseases in which NF-kappaB is known to be involved -- cancers, AIDS, some inflammatory diseases -- we'd like to stop the action of this protein; that would be a long-term goal," adds Dr. Cassiday, who is a post-doctoral fellow at Mayo Graduate School. "Our short-term goal is to learn the capabilities of these small, folded RNAs."
   
   The Experiment: How It Works, Where It Leads
   
   Step 1: Test tube experiments
   
   ...
   Drs. Maher and Cassiday had to see if the decoy RNA could bind NF-kappaB not just in a test tube but in the chaos of a cell.
   
   "It's a whole different ball game in the cell, because there are thousands of other proteins that the RNA might bind to," says Dr. Cassiday. "These proteins could distract it from what we want it to do: find and bind to NF-kappaB. We weren't sure the RNA was specific enough to target NF-kappaB under these conditions. Also, there are all sorts of enzymes that degrade RNA within a cell. We weren't sure the RNA would be stable enough to survive and do its job. These were all considerations that needed to be resolved in our cellular experiments."