Stephen Buratowski, PhD

Harvard Medical School

Academic Titles

Professor, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Member, Cancer Cell Biology

Research Abstract

We study the mechanism of eukaryotic gene expression using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. Biochemical, molecular, and genetic techniques are used to study the basal and regulatory transcription factors required for proper RNA polymerase II transcription initiation and termination. We also study mRNA modifications such as capping and polyadenylation. We have shown that coupling of these processes with transcription is mediated by the association of various enzymes with different phosphorylated forms of RNA polymerase II. More recently, we have been studying how this phosphorylation system sets up a characteristic pattern of histone methylation on genes. We study the downstream effects of these histone modifications on gene expression. Importantly, many of the enzymes involved in these processes turn out to be mutated in human cancers.