The people... 

Emilie Bäumlin, emilie.baeumlin@students.unibe.ch

Dominic Andenmatten, dominic.andenmatten@students.unibe.ch

Aurélien Lalou, aurelien.lalou@unibe.ch

Sarah Jordi

Nino Schwaller

And the goal

mRNA translation in health... 

Apart from producing all proteins that are needed for the being of the cells, mRNA translation serves as a quality control mechanism that monitors the quality of the engaged mRNA molecules and as a sensor for the metabolic and functional state of the cell.  

...and disease 

Every virus relies on the host cell translation machinery to propagate and produce new viral particles. For this reason, the interplay between host cell translation and viral components is important to prevent and cure viral diseases and understand the translation mechanism. 

The goal of my research is to address open questions in the field of human mRNA translation and address the interplay between viral infection and host cell mRNA translation.  

I leverage my graduate and post-graduate training in translation-dependent mRNA degradation to develop and apply innovative technologies to investigate how viral proteins affect human translation (e.g. SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1). Harnessing the potential of a newly-developed human in vitro translation system and combining in vivo experiments and long-read sequencing, I aspire to expand our knowledge of human health and disease and propose therapeutic applications. 

Our research is funded by the Multidisciplinary center for infectious diseases (MCID) and the Holcim Stiftung.